Memories are Tricky!

"Era todavia demasiado joven para saber

que la memoria del corazon elimina los malos

recuerdos y magnifica los buenos,

y que gracias a ese artificio

logramos sobrellevar el pasado."

-El Amor en los Tiempos del Colera

I'm currently reading Love in the Time of Colera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I came across these lines and was shocked to realize I wasn't the only one who changed my memories around. Translated: "He was still too young to know that the memory of the heart eliminates bad memories and magnifies the good ones, and thanks to this artifice we are able to cope with the past."

I remember coming to this realization when I was in high school and would go on retreats with my church group. The retreats were fun, and I remember having good times (ahem, walks in the avocado groves with Annie), but by the time I got home: it was the best weekend I'd ever had!!! Thing is, I'm more of a shy, quiet person, and even more so in the peak of my insecure days in high school, which means that while most kids were out playing sports and getting to know each other, I was sitting awkwardly somewhere hoping break time would be over soon. And there was a lot of break time.

It was great to find a passage in a book, written by someone who won the Nobel prize in literature, expressing exactly what I've always believed.