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[NF] Earliest memories

lillyofthevalley

New member
Joined
Jun 26, 2009
Messages
157
MBTI Type
INFJ
My earliest memory is when I was 2. I snuck up behind my mother while she was ironing and put my hand up on the ironing board. I still have a slight scar on one of my nuckles. I remember an incident when I was 3.
 

Kingfisher

full of love
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
1,685
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
9w8
i am impressed with how many of you have such early memories. i am jealous sometimes of people who have very early memories. i can't remember anything before 7 or 8 years old, and only remember hazy things before about 10.
 

JivinJeffJones

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
3,702
MBTI Type
INFP
I have no way of dating a lot of my very early memories, but the earliest dated one I have was of me climbing into a new, still-empty china cabinet. I remember the smell of the wood and looking through the glass doors at my mum laughing and taking a photo of me. I was pretty pleased with myself, I can tell you. I couldn't have been more than 2. How old is it usual to get toilet-trained (which, alas, I remember bits and pieces of)? Pretty sure I was toilet-trained no later than usual, and if I was wearing nappies in the photo then it was pre-toilet-training.
 

SilkRoad

Lay the coin on my tongue
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
3,932
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I’ve confirmed with my mom that my two earliest memories are from about the age of 2. I guess they were both somewhat traumatic which is why they stuck with me (traumatic for a 2 year old, anyway!)

I remember being at the pool where my brother was taking swimming lessons – we were sitting up in some kind of balcony, my mum holding me, and I had some kind of baby board book and I dropped it over the edge. It had some kind of bear picture on the cover and I remember staring down at it (it looked as far down as the ground from the top of the CN Tower) and the bear face staring back up at me.

The other one is a memory of being pushed down a tiny hill in the park near my parents’ house in a stroller. Apparently my brother thought he would give me a fun ride and let go of the stroller (either that or he wanted to do away with me, haha – but no, genuinely my brother was always very fond of me and apparently was quite upset by this incident.) When I say “hill” it wasn’t really that – just a tiny, very short slope. But the stroller turned over! I have a very vague memory of things going upside down.

I am 99% sure those memories are genuine. I do have other memories between the ages of 3-7 or so especially where I’m not sure if I actually remember them, or if I saw photos or someone told me about it. This is especially the case because our family travelled a lot from before I can even remember and it’s sometimes hard to say what I do and don’t remember.

Memory is a mysterious thing. I’m not sure overall if mine is particularly good or bad. Probably just average. I always find it a strange sensation when a memory has apparently been gone from your mind (at least your conscious mind) for years, and then someone reminds you and it pops back in fully formed and you think “how did I forget that?” One of my best friends from high school has the funniest memory for random things (it’s 13 years since we graduated.) He reminded me recently of how a group of us used to go for coffee and I would eat sugar straight from the packet. It all came screaming back to me when he said that :D
 

icmlite

New member
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
28
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
2
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?

I haven't read any of the other posts, just the OP - I have to say, maybe I'm out of the ordinary, but I feel like instead of the allegedly more powerful long-term memory that you suggest is characteristic of NF's, I have an extremely active and effective short-term memory. I don't have a lot of vivid childhood memories.

EDIT: I'm 20 and in college, if that's relevant to this discussion.
 

Fife

New member
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
81
MBTI Type
INFJ
My earliest memory is from when we lived in Australia for about a year(?) when I was about 1 1/2 - 2 y.o.

There was a huge thunderstorm in the dead of night, which seemed to rend the sky. I woke up and watched it through (what seemed like) huge floor to ceiling windows, Mum's arm around me. (They would have obviously been normal size for a grownup). I wasn't scared at all. Then I remember walking up the stairs, looking in at my baby brother's room and his crib.

It was awesome lightning.

The interesting thing about this memory is that I'm sure it has changed somewhat over time. The ambient lighting seems green. Mum remembers the incident, so haven't made it up :)
 

Liminality

New member
Joined
Aug 29, 2009
Messages
217
MBTI Type
ISFx
Enneagram
6w7
I've a memory of being in a cot, and climbing out when it was night and stumbling to the hallway, scared (I think I'd had a bad dream), but didn't want to wake my parents up because it might make them tired in the morning, and they might be angry with me.

I've others wich are hard to date, apart from one where I was contemplating my next(fourth) brithday, and what it meant to 'be' 'four' :laugh: I had it in my head there was a chance parts of my personality would change, or 'upgrade'.
 
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