Where in the world.... Dang it!

I have always thought I had a fairly good memory when I focus on one thing. I can remember back during a CNA (Certified Nurse's Assistant) class that I took at Mountainland Applied Technology College in Orem, Utah we had a guest lecturer during the 2nd half of the course. I can remember he was from the American Red Cross and was there to help us certify not only for CPR, but also first aid responder. His name was Mike and he taught anatomy at UVSC. I would put him to be about 58 or 62 at the time, and he told us that his wife was a RN at the intensive care unit at a hospital in Provo. Mike started his lecture by telling us a bit about learning and memory. He told all of us to put our notebooks away and just focus and by focusing we would retain much more than if we were distracted by anything else. It was the best method of learning and to show us he had us learn the word "borborygmus" which means the gurgling in your intestines or in other words- when your tummy rumbles. This lecture took place back in April of 2005 and I still remember it. 

I also have a memory for the oddest things that seems almost useless. For example, a week or so before I was to go home for Christmas my mom called and told me she was cleaning out my closet. She was complaining of some of the most random finds. Everything she told me about I was able to describe in detail, where it was left in the closet, and the story of how I got it and why I kept it. It worried her more than a little :)

So you may be wondering where i am going with this seemingly unrelated introduction on the quirks of my memory (of which were made clear to all those YSA of the Reading Stake at Institute last Wednesday - I have an unusual knowledge of the Joseph Smith mummies and papyri, and the origins of the Pearl of Great Price) and my title of "Where in the world... Dang it". Let me connect them for you now.

As I continue in my newly found nomadic lifestyle I work hard to orient myself and gain a basic understanding of the area around me. It helps to make a place feel like home.  I feel like I have just started to hit that point with Oxford, another week or two and I'll have it down. But there are those moments where I forget where I am, or where something is kept. 

A few examples to explain. Over Christmas break I went back to my hometown and stayed with my family for a few weeks. One day I was getting dressed in my closet - a closet i used basically for 10 years and when i was all done I flung my arm around in the air for the light string. I am embarrassed to admit it took almost a full 20 seconds of my swinging my arm over my head, like an idiot, without looking, to remember - wrong closet. My closet in Utah has a light switch outside the door, while the closet in Massachusetts had the light string... 

Then this morning I was in that stage between sleep and waking when it happened again - the where am I? feeling. I had a dream that I was going to visit relatives in Santa Barbara, California. I know I have a bus pass that can get me from the airport to their house so I won't inconvenience them and due to my quirky memory I know EXACTLY where in my desk in Orem its kept. I just couldn't remember if I was in Massachusetts or Utah, but I knew from my dream that my plane left in just a few hours. So I opened my eyes ready to sort out the problem when i was greeted by a strange sight. My desk was not in the right place, the sun was too bright, and there was a closet in the middle of the room. I had forgotten all about being in Oxford. It took a little while to shake the confusion from my head. 

Perhaps this isn't helped by my odd fascination with orientation. That started back when I was a child reading Ender's Game for the first time and felt like I was sitting beside Ender when he first entered space and realized without gravity dictating what is up and what is down orientation takes place solely in your mind. I like to play with this especially when I am lying down in my bed with my eyes closed. From that position I can imagine that I am in any number of locations including, of course, Utah, Massachusetts, or England. Then I start to imagine rearranging the furniture in my head so I can imagine if I were to open my eyes what I would see in these different locations. I study psychology so I know how unreliable memory is but it seems to be accurate in your head and I am no exception. 

So living as an extended wanderer from place to place means you get to expand your first hand knowledge of lands, peoples, societies, and cultures, but at the disorienting price of overloading your brain with information.