Do you remember who you went to school with

Hello all! I had a question in my mind after reading an article today. Does any of you remember the names and the face of people you went to elementary school with? I can maybe, with a pretty heavy difficulty, remember about maybe 6 or 7 of them from elementary school and maybe 5 from high school. There were about 25 to 30 of us in each class. I simply do not remember them any more, cant really recall the names or looks. It all seems blank. Since Im 38 now, is that common or not?
 
I can maybe, with a pretty heavy difficulty, remember about maybe 6 or 7 of them from elementary school and maybe 5 from high school. There were about 25 to 30 of us in each class. I simply do not remember them any more, cant really recall the names or looks. It all seems blank. Since Im 38 now, is that common or not?

I'm 46, and can recall a few names from my infant years, especially the ones I played with, but can remember other names as well. Life just seemed to be a swirl of bikes, football, games of tag and thinking about the girls, lol. As for high school, I find it easier to recall people, even though I was a far more withdrawn individual by that point. I can recall the names of people I avoided just as easily as the friends from that time. The egos on people at that age, unbelievable! I can well recall the nascent narcissists strutting their stuff at age 14-15, thinking they were true originals, even though they were just running programs at full force.

I don't know if I'm alone in this level of recall, but some of my old school mates I know from hooking up on facebook in past years (I quit facebook 6 years ago) could remember far more than me. They could even recall what teachers they had in each subsequent year, they even held online contests to see who could remember the most. I was amazed how much some of them still knew, I felt like I was betraying my younger self in some way. But then I was often unhappy in those years, and that might make a crucial difference. The guys who remembered the most were in my mind the most comfortable in themselves, they had this innate self-assurance that I lacked.

I wouldn't stress too much over it, to be honest. I have periods in my life where I wake up in the morning and an entire memory of an old school experience just pops into my mind. It's happened fairly recently too, and it's always fresh stuff that I'd forgotten about. In my journalling I've got my life divided into epochs, and these memories are in division 2 (division 1 being pre-school), and division 3 was college and Uni. I always stack my memories into divisions, and plot my journey from these way points. When something crops up in my mind I am always grateful, the more I can know the better, and it helps me to make sense of my life. If something important is in these times, I'm sure it will reach your mind eventually.
 
Hello all! I had a question in my mind after reading an article today. Does any of you remember the names and the face of people you went to elementary school with? I can maybe, with a pretty heavy difficulty, remember about maybe 6 or 7 of them from elementary school and maybe 5 from high school. There were about 25 to 30 of us in each class. I simply do not remember them any more, cant really recall the names or looks. It all seems blank. Since Im 38 now, is that common or not?
I have little memory of elementary school friends as I changed different towns during this period and had a mix of public, private, home school education. Even my kids who are in high school now, lived in the same current location doesn't remember lot of their friends of elementary school. I think it is common to forget as the brain is evolving and constantly absorbing lot of stuff.

Now a days, every body has cell phones and every body fancied to have Whatsapp or similar groups for each period. Though, I no longer read the posts, I had high school, graduate and post graduate college chat groups and shared memories that evoke old memories.

Few years back, I read an article that says humans have tolerance limit w.r.t social contact ( around 15 families at a time )irrespective of one is introvert or extrovert. you may want to share the article which gives more context of the post.
 
I am in my 60’s and I remember dozens of people I went to kindergarten and elementary school with. Some just their looks and personality and some their names and even their families. I haven’t seen or heard from these people in 50 years but when I remember them I can remember conversations and incidents also. I only lived a year or two in one place until I was about 13 so it seems strange that I would remember them all so well. My memory is actually improving with age but it could be due to my change in diet.
 
Interesting question! At first I did not think it important, but when thinking about whom I remembered it started to get interesting for me. I have a complete blackout about the girls I went to elementary school with - only one vague name but no face to it. (It was not a nice time for me anyway, I did not like being there, I had to travel nearly an hour to school and therefore could not meet someone after school was over and I have nearly rare fragments of my time the school itself, too). I remember some names and faces about my Young crowd group and I remember very well nearly all of my comrades at the gymnasium. Some of them I meet on the street sometimes, a few of them have I met regularly after years and am still in contact from time to time. Thank you for bringing this memories to me! 🥰
 
This is a GREAT self-remembering exercise. I have a good memory. Remembering those other kids is also a gateway to remembering experiences and feelings and our inner psychological landscape and awareness. It probably keeps the brain young too. And definitely a roadmap of "How did I get to be who I am". Also a good way to acknowledge from whence we came. This hits on all cylinders.

I had a college dormitory mate who came from the same town. Only recently did we realize that we went to school with many of the same people in our youth. We have been running through the list. Speaking of girls in elementary school, I remember this one. At some point in my unconscious boy-ness, I realized she had a crush on me (we were maybe 8 or 9?) and it scared the holy hell out of me and I totally freaked out! LOL Great to get in touch with the fundamentals, the base unfiltered emotions.

Another time I punched a kid in the nose on the playground. It is super enlightening to look into my mind-set and thought process that led me to that action. It was, ultimately a raw and crude response to a psychopathic usurpation. A great story that landed me in the principal's office for a stern and concerned "talking to". If a kid does that today? I shudder to think. That was a different era. It was understood that boys WILL be boys and the testosterone levels were maxed out back then, so there is that 'excuse'. Even so, I think I was maybe 7 years old at the time and for sure I remember that kid's name. It is funny that my college friend said he turned out to be a great person! God works in strange ways. Maybe I did him a good deed by triggering some metanoia that was a catalyst for a new path for him by giving him a bloody nose? Of course I like to think so!
 
June 7th 2014

(Seppo Ilmarinen) My question is about why do I have so many blank spots in my childhood? Childhood memories?

A: Abuse can tend to aid dissociation. Writing may help.

Q: (Breton) I guess we're familiar with the writing exercises.

(Seppo Ilmarinen) Yeah, I've been doing those.

A: Not just "the writing exercises!" We mean writing down your life, and do it with the hand, not the keyboard. You will be surprised at how much returns to memory, especially if you allow a bit of automaticity. Also, SRT is recommended
If anyone want to remember the forgotten past memories, then perhaps the writing exercise help to restore party or completely?
 
Hello all! I had a question in my mind after reading an article today. Does any of you remember the names and the face of people you went to elementary school with? I can maybe, with a pretty heavy difficulty, remember about maybe 6 or 7 of them from elementary school and maybe 5 from high school. There were about 25 to 30 of us in each class. I simply do not remember them any more, cant really recall the names or looks. It all seems blank. Since Im 38 now, is that common or not?
I don't think that's very unusual. Some people seem to remember people from the past much more than other people do. I remember a few, but I was always kind of a quiet kid, and often felt very different from the other kids, so I didn't have a ton of friends. I was never part of the popular crowd, and usually only had a handful of friends. I read in a very interesting book that as the years go by, the more events that happen and the more memories we accumulate, the harder it is for our brains to retain it all. It's like our brains have to throw out information in order to keep taking in the new information, we just don't have enough capacity to remember everything. I think people who are more outgoing and have lots and lots of friends will remember more about people. Those of us who are more in our own heads, and don't feel the need to be around people all the time, will not remember them as much
 
Thank you for your question! It is important to share our memories, our dreams, especially in these times when everything is changing and we feel a little lost.
I remember many things from my school days, I remember very well the "atmosphere", the smell of pencils, erasers, my first notebooks... although I remember few classmates.

My memories are rather visual, faces, silhouettes, games during recess, especially the big rounds that we formed singing at the top of our lungs, happy to be able to change the rules of the lessons for those of each song or game. It is true that in my school I did not meet my neighbors, because they all went to private schools, and my classmates came from farther away, walking sometimes about 1 km. The girls who came to our public school lived in poorer neighborhoods, while my little neighbors who had a public school 200 meters away, went by car to private schools in more distant neighborhoods.
I remember only a few names of my classmates, but I remember very well my teacher, her face, her name and surname, whom I always admired very much, with her I had the opportunity to learn many things, and she also appreciated me.

Regarding your question about memory, it seems to me that each person is different, some of us are more visual, others remember sounds, music, or events that marked them, such as a birthday, a show, etc. Then I think that it is not easy to relate a face with a name, since the face is "stored" in the visual memory, while the name is in the auditory memory, or maybe it can also be in the visual memory if you remember better having seen it written. Well, and that happens to all of us, we have access to certain memories, and many others escape us.

Besides, it turns out that I have been able to recover some of my childhood memories, since I started writing them down so that my children can read them later, when they feel the need. And I can tell you that as I began to write, new memories that I had forgotten came back to me. Maybe if you were to describe your school, for example, and everything you remember automatically, it could help you to put together a face with a name, and that would be a first step.
 
Hello all! I had a question in my mind after reading an article today. Does any of you remember the names and the face of people you went to elementary school with? I can maybe, with a pretty heavy difficulty, remember about maybe 6 or 7 of them from elementary school and maybe 5 from high school. There were about 25 to 30 of us in each class. I simply do not remember them any more, cant really recall the names or looks. It all seems blank. Since Im 38 now, is that common or not?
I'm 43. I can remember all names, nearly all faces, and even some birthdays, and numerous events all the way back to nursery school. I didn't always, but about 18 months ago, maybe longer, I started taking lion's mane daily. Not only did my short term memory improve, but my long-term recall as well. Now I'm also micro-dosing psilocybin with lion's mane and niacin (The Stamet's Protocol), which is my attempt to stave off dementia, which is not uncommon in my family. I remember things now I couldn't 10 years ago. And no, I don't think it's normal, but it's common. I think there are a lot of factors, one of them being the distractions of modern life.
 
I'll also add that I've faced my past. I was an unhappy child and I stuffed a lot of things down and internalized them. In one of those experiences though, I swear I time traveled. I was back at my childhood home, outside, laying belly down on the warm sidewalk in spring. I could smell the dirt and the air, and it was more like reliving the experience than remembering it. So that may also play into it. Intentionally facing long held fears and disappointments and seeing if I can learn anything from them with the experience of life I have now I didn't then.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think I might be the exception but I really loved the first few years at school. Maybe because I was really good at it. However, the childhood wounding was already there and school became a sort of compensation for that - going into ego and alienating classmates with that.

We moved to a different country right around the time it became really bad and I became sort of more withdrawn in the teenage years. That was probably the darkest and hardest period for me up until I had my first spiritual awakening when I was 19. Though it still took many years to heal and grow.
 
My first and only year of school in my small village. 30 children or so (8 grades in on classroom). I rembember a few, I still cross some of them. Some I cross and they may have been in my school with me but I don't know who they are, they generaly seems to know who I am. One recently got in touch with me on facebook, I don't remember him but I remember his father who teach me the piano for one year. I also remember the teacher who still live near.

Then 7 years in another school. I remember maybe 10 of them, mostly faces, a few names. The teachers, I remember some. The math teacher is hard to not remember because she had two sentences she was always saying in a particular manner.

Then 2 years in another school. I remember to kids and not one teacher.

And finally 3 years in another school. I remember 7 kids and one teacher, the one teacher that provided me my 15 minutes of fame...
 
I'll also add that I've faced my past. I was an unhappy child and I stuffed a lot of things down and internalized them. In one of those experiences though, I swear I time traveled. I was back at my childhood home, outside, laying belly down on the warm sidewalk in spring. I could smell the dirt and the air, and it was more like reliving the experience than remembering it. So that may also play into it. Intentionally facing long held fears and disappointments and seeing if I can learn anything from them with the experience of life I have now I didn't then.

Hi @Artex,

Your post has been edited since we do not condone the usage of such substances and discussions about it.
 
A few years ago, I tried to find a high school friend that we have lost contact since graduation. It has been over 50 years now. I did people search and could not find him but the increased interest cause me to dream of him. The funny thing was that he looked his age in my dreams rather than the teenager and even more weird was that I had forgotten what he looked like. This has been an extremely psychic realization on my part of how we are all connected on a level that we do not know let alone understand.
 
Back
Top Bottom