The Goldfish Memory

A lot say a goldfish has a memory span of 7 seconds. Only 7 short seconds, is this a good thing or a bad thing? What will you choose is you were given a second chance to choose life? To be human or to be a goldfish?

If you choose to be a human, you will have the ability to remember all the happy memories such as being praised in being good when you are a little kid, having the memories of visiting to those awesome countries, surprise parties your friends and families made for you, the times where you were being loved and many many more.
Then there is anger, those emotions that will only caused by memories that you have been keeping to yourself for a certain period of time and when the day you could not hold it anymore, you explode. And when that happens, you will cause bad bad bad memories that you wish you had never experienced before and it is a two way experience where the same emotions effects the other person as well.
Last would of course be sad moments, these are the times you wish you could forget for the rest of your life, for example heart breaks given by the ones you loved, failures in life, deaths, disappointments and a lot more heart aching moments that you wish you could be a goldfish forever.

So, is it so good to be able to be a goldfish other than a human?
Recently I had a talk with my close buddy, she told me her experienced where she was dumped by her boyfriend, she was so in love with him that she said she could not live without him and do not know how she would be without him accompanying her. She said if she had the chance she would rather choose to be a goldfish, because she is able to refresh her memory immediately after 7 seconds and she will only be in pain for 7 seconds.

The moment I heard her saying this I smiled. She thought I was so cruel that I was laughing at her heart breaks, but in fact, I am laughing at her being so pure with life. This is a complicated world and she is able to kept such pure heart is truly something awesome.
She asked why, I did not say anything but I asked a question: Do you remember loving him? She did not understand why I asked such question so I told her my thoughts.
'In this world, if you were a goldfish with only 7 seconds of memory would you have the chance to be in love with him? Or only being in love for 7 seconds is already enough for you? If you were a goldfish with 7 seconds of memory would you be able to remember all the happy moments you have cherish so much with him? Or are all those memories not important or memorable at all that you hope it would be deleted from your memory after just 7 seconds? Yes, you might encounter sadness or anger, but if you were only a goldfish with 7 seconds of memory, you would have no memory of who he is, and worst memory of who you are. Is remembering who you are so frustrated that you wish to forget yourself after just 7 seconds since your birth? Are you so unappreciated that you would want to just remember yourself for 7 seconds? In your whole life span, is 7 seconds for everything really enough for you?'

For me, 7 seconds is just too short for me to do anything, I am not able to remember what I love, what I am passionate about, what my abilities are, all my experiences, and myself. I am not given the chance to remember anything. I really can't imagine what would I be without memories.
Yes you might be hurt sometimes, and would want these memories out of your life, but by remembering it, you would know how to be grateful of what you had and know what does it means to be alive. Because without memories, you would be just like a robot.
A robot without feelings and emotions. A robot without identity.
Actually by having memories, we are able to learn how to balance out emotions and thinkings. For instance we would know that happy moments are more important and is something more memorable, therefore you can use happy memories to overlap your unhappy thoughts. It is effective because if your are able to put your bad memories aside, you will be choosing happy over sad and that decision is done by having memories and past experiences.

Humans; a species that is given the chance to choose happiness or sadness.
During my secondary years, I was in a situation where I am being so sad and emotionally down for my whole form 5 year. I experienced a relationship split, a death from my most loved grandmother and a boycott from almost the whole form 5 students. It is really emotionally abusive indeed.
I was so sad but I am not given the chance to express my feeling so I kept it all to myself and cried myself to bed for a very long period of time.
Then, I tell myself I need to change. Not my personality to please the others, but my mindset. The choice of being a goldfish towards my sad and angry memories. It might sound impossible, but it works.
How?
Well, first is to be grateful, always be grateful. Because one can only be happy if your are satisfied with your life and what you already have. Second is to find your passion, do what you love and find love in what you are doing. Because by doing what you love, you are able to open up your mind and make your life meaningful again, and at that moment, I rediscovered music :D Third is to read, yeah yeah I know, reading is boring, but reading does help. Not motivational books, any books will do. Me myself, I love novels, romantic, horror, investigation and family related ones. Books that inspires you, books that help you rethink your actions and ways of seeing things, because by changing your perspectives, you are able to change and choose happiness.
Last but not least, is to choose. Choose the life you wanted to live, the things you wanted to remember and certainly the 'you' you want to be. When you encounter sadness, sit back relax and chill. Or just simply to K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid). When your mindset is simple, you can easily filter out bad memories and forget things you want to forget. Or even choose to not remember when it is already happening, this is really good way to stay happy.

So you do not need to be a goldfish to filter out sad memories, you can be you and learn the filtering skills later haha
It needs some time but it is definitely worth it.
Well, it has some negative effects though.....What? Well, later you would know you would have bad bad memory. Like what my brother said, I need blueberries (like a lot) because my memory is so bad now I could not remember anything >< Yeah, I only remember what I want to remember, and most of them aren't stuff I want to remember so yeah......hehe


Written On

9 August 2015


APA Referencing:

Mortensen, P. (2010, June 9). Goldfish Memory. Image Retrieved from The Fishbowl Experiment: http://fishbowlexperiment.com/