1. Hot Dogs 2025

I cling to early childhood memories much like one clings to loose sand at a beach—with all the might in the world, no matter how futile the attempt. I wish I could say I have a beautifully catalogued mental file cabinet with the events of each year neatly tucked away in their respective drawers, but I’d venture to say that my storage system is more akin to a scavenger hunt with incomprehensible clues and haphazard prizes.      Through my time in AP Psychology this year, I’ve learned a lot about memories—explicit versus implicit, the process of creating false memories, and the ever-so-controversial Freudian concept of repression . Although I once believed that my utter lack of childhood memories stemmed from repression, it only took a few lessons on the heavily scientifically discredited phenomenon for me to learn that this was almost certainly not the case. In the relative span of my life as of right now, I can’t say anything particularly traumatic enough to cause repress...

Photo Credit: Hamilton, Jori. "The Importance of Preserving Memories Through Photography." Life as a Human , 6 June 2021, Web. Accessed 19 March 2025. Memory shapes who we are as people. It connects us to our past, influences our present, and even guides how we go about our lives in the future. But when I think of memories, I solely think about my memories with my family and friends. I remember my family dinners with my family friends, my grandma, and my cousins. I remember the time when my dad carried me on his back when I was eight years old. I remember the time I met my niece for the first time in my old home. Memories of family can be a source of comfort. When I experience difficult moments, I recall these beautiful, nostalgic memories to cheer me up. It shows that this obstacle in my life will eventually pass and there is no need to worry or stress over it now as it does not provide any benefit or change the future.  In today’s world, it is easy to just let moments sli...

  As a Boy Scout, I’ve spent countless days hiking through the woods and nights sleeping under the stars. During those adventures, I was always aware that I was intruding on the native creatures of the land—the animals—but there was a veil of ignorance , a belief that I would never really encounter any danger. That is, until one fateful summer night when that veil was torn apart and utterly trampled. I had been on a two-day hike in the mountains surrounding Sterling Lake. At the time, I was around 14 years old and was a junior camp counselor responsible for a small group of 12-13-year-olds. The day had been relatively uneventful, with an endless stream of “Are we there yet?” from the campers and the constant nagging of a possible sunburn creeping up on my neck. After hiking for hours, we finally arrived at the campsite and began setting up for the night. The following morning, it was tradition for each junior counselor’s group of campers to perform a camp song to wake everyone up. ...

  Memory is our only way of knowing what exactly happened in our lives. Everything we know about ourselves and our environment comes from our memories. However, our memories are incredibly unreliable.  Some memories may be false memories, where a person’s brain will subconsciously change details about the memory to the point it becomes entirely untrue. For example, I vividly remember that in fourth grade, one of my friend’s favorite colors was black. When it came up recently, she told me it was pink, and her favorite color was black in sixth grade. I was really confused, but I realized that I might’ve had a false memory. We probably have countless false, or at least somewhat altered, memories, and it's jarring to know that our perception of our past may not be entirely accurate.  Another thing that makes memories unreliable is simply being forgetful. I’m an incredibly forgetful person, so I miss details all the time. Sometimes, when my friends start talking about somethin...

Have you ever flown a plane before? That is my favorite question to ask people because the answer is usually no. I am lucky enough to have flown a plane at a very young age. I don’t know how old I was exactly, but I believe I was around 8 years old.  My grandpa used to own some planes, and he took me up flying with him once. Once we were in the sky, he let me control the plane. My young mind couldn't believe it! Me, flying a plane? Sign me up! My grandpa told me to GENTLY move the control stick(the joystick looking thing)up, so of course my little self yanked the control stick upwards, and up went the plane. My older brother, who was also in the plane, yelled at the top of his lungs, “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!”(I will always remember that part very fondly). I gently moved the joystick back to its original state, and I quickly learned that you have to be very sensitive with the control stick. I am very grateful to my grandpa for letting me have the experience of flying in the sky in ...

Photo Credit: McKinnon, Melissa. "Purple Haze 20'X20.'" Melissa McKinnon Art . Web. Accessed 19 Mar. 2025. As I try to think of my memories, I find myself remembering positive ones more than negative ones. Even my negative memories have a happy ending. This is likely because positive memories are not learning experiences like negative ones but rather reinforce existing memories. As a result, when I go down memory lane, I find myself gravitating towards my happier memories. These memories serve the purpose of acting as “buffers” for the stress people feel. The difference between the two types of memories for me is the feeling associated with them. Although negative memories remind me of times when I felt sad, I ultimately look back feeling nostalgic. The sad feeling is momentary and I can easily move on from it. With happier memories however, I feel a warmer, more content feeling inside longer. Although in both cases, I do not remember the specifics of the memory,...

Who Tells Your Story?   One of the oldest proverbs in the history books is that of how history is written by the victors. That is certainly true, as usually the victors are the ones at liberty to write down the story. Yet that is not necessarily true, for even for the victors it means little if it is only stored in people’s memory.  Paper has the longest memory. For the countless stories written down can tell a story long after those who wrote it have passed. It is a great treasure - but not one that can be taken for granted. Throughout history there are plenty of examples of fantastic stories that were lost to history due to either having no one to write it down, or the records having been lost to war or disaster. And so they with the longest memory were left unable to pass their story on. The Norse peoples of northern Europe fifteen centuries ago are among the best documented groups that left behind no records of their own, as we are given insights into their lifestyle throu...