I have a theory that many if not most NF's have incredible long-term memories: longer, fuller, and clearer that average. Do you think this is true?
Also, I've always been fascinated by people's 'first' or 'earliest' memories, and have collected many of them over the years. Some people don't remember anything from before they were 5 or 6, or in a few cases even 8. That astonishes me. My earliest memory is, as far as I can work out, from when I was 2. Nothing traumatic, very pedestrian really, but very clear. (Lying in my parents bed trying to see shapes in ceiling cracks the way you can in clouds, before being scooped up and carried out). And you?
My earliest memory was when I was two. It was my birthday and, because my mom and I lived with my grandparents--who still had my junior high and high school aged uncles and aunts living in the house--when we moved back from Cali, all of my closest family were there. I was slouched over the birthday cake, and everyone was telling me to make a wish. But instead of making a wish, I was thinking about what a birthday actually was. What was it to be two? What was it to be one? Then, I started to get frustrated because I couldn't figure out what I was before I was one. All I could come up with was zero (I had only learned the numbers zero through ten), but I couldn't have been zero because zero was nothingness. So, I kept thinking and thinking and thinking but couldn't get anything other than zero, so I told myself to always remember that moment because eventually when I was older I would know what came before zero and could remember what it was to be an infant.
...I was weird. And precocious.
I also remember wondering when I was around five what my purpose on earth was. Since I'm a southern, the concept of God had already been introduced to me by time I could walk, and bibles were all over the house that I grew up in. So once on a lazy afternoon when I was bored, I picked up one of those Christian inspirational books and asked one of my aunts to read the writing on the back of the book to me. Oddly enough, the writing had things like, "Have you ever wondered about your place on Earth?," "Do you wonder why God gave you life?," "Do you ever feel like this world is too big and too vast, sometimes?," etc. I was shocked because I had asked myself all those questions before but never knew how to articulate it (I mean, of course I didn't know how to articulate it. I WAS FIVE!). I really
didn't know why God wanted me on the earth or what my purpose was while here. I remember being so excited about that book and running up to everyone and telling them about it. Most of the time, they ignored me and thought I was silly when I asked them to read the entire thing to me. It was tough being an NF kid in a world of crazy SPs
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Oh, and I have several memories of when I was three. Just too many of my favorite memories in that batch.