Coffee with a friend

Today I went to a cafe to study with a friend. While there, she was telling me that she was having very funny flashbacks from the night before. I asked her what point of view her flashbacks were in and she told me that they were in a cinematic point of view (third person), as in she was watching her actions. I found this interesting and started to think about memories. As we go about our daily routines, we all have a first person perspective of looking out and seeing our surroundings, but it seems to me that when people remember things it is always in a cinematic way. We watch our memories as if they were a movie, and we see ourselves running or laughing or dancing, but we see ourselves in our memory. This made me think about the way our memories are constructed. Do we consruct our memories in this manner because we have all been exposed to film? What are the perspectives or points of view that the aborignals or native people, that have never been exposed to film, have when they are remembering a moment? Would their memories be constructed in the same way, are they seeing their memories from a first person perspective or are they seeing their memories from a third person perspective like many films today? How do our memories make the transition to third person when everything we experience is in first person?

A journal entry I read

The other day I wanted to write in my journal. I used to be in better habit of recording my thoughts, and daily activities, but working and going to school has presented a time constraint that I have not been able to work around. I hardly write in my journal anymore. The first journal entry was written December 25, 2005 and the next one was written on October 10, 2006...what I was doing in between this time will forever be a mystery. I wrote in my journal the other day (April 25, 2007, it would seem as though I have started a habit of writing only one journal entry a year, as if I were trying to save paper), and as I opened my journal I read the previous entry from October 10, 2006 and was surprised by what I wrote. I love that feeling of being surprised at your own thoughts, reading that entry felt as though I was having a conversation with my prior self from one year ago. I encourage everyone to converse with their previous selves, if anything just to compare who you were to who you are now. This was my entry on the 10th of October in 2006:

-It takes almost one year to revisit these blank pages. I feel a strong need for a creative outlet. My far fetching dreams are daunting, but I try to visualize my success as much as my rational side will allow. My best work in writing has been without structure, without having purpose, without having a specific point in mind. Jonathon Foer, a young author says, "Let accidents happen." I hope to have an accident real soon. Right now is the most appropriate, and responsible time in my life to actually pursue what I feel is innate to my being. I think people are born with certain intrinsic talents that when developed correctly can flourish into something not even the person can define.

What an entry. It's a strange action, to be reflecting on a past reflection, but I read this and thought, how articulate, how idealistic, how...naive.