"We are born into a system. The world is already formed beforehand. It seems that your life is just beginning, but you are never given a blank page. You are given a script." - Unknown

''Create the world you dream with every choice you make.'' -Stephen C. Paul 

When we are born, we are given a script called ''This is what your life should be like"

And we don't really have much of a choice in the matter.
And we start playing:
The first chapter, childhood.
Pre-school, playing with toys, learning to ride a bike, running around screaming in happiness, eating ice cream and candy until your stomach hurts.
Then, teenage years.
School, being moody, doing crazy things, not listening to your parents, experimenting, being messy, loving, crying, piercing your tongue.
Young adult
University, relationships, sex, car, parties, alcohol.
Adult
Marriage, children, big house, job, money.
Senior
Retirement


My question is, ''is that all?''
Really, is that all life has to offer? Don't we have any choice?

Of course we do. But when we people try to get away from the script, they are judged. Severely. They are labeled. ''weird'', ''rebellious'', ''anti-____''.
but all they try to do is do something different.
Different isn't wrong. That's a stereotype I really think that people should be aware of and try to let go. Its not wrong, weird or anti-anything. It's just different. We are all unique beings. We have the right to choose our path in life. Who says we all have to choose the same one?
Does everybody really need to get 16+ years of education? Does everyone have to hate their parents when they are teenagers? Does everyone have to drink until passing out every weekend as college students?

Rhetorical questions, really. But why do we still give in to the stereotype? Even the most modern and open of us give in to it. ''Different is wrong. Discourage them. Make them come back to the mass of sameness''
Its sad, really.

An example: I have plenty of experience in living in historically Muslim countries. And what surprises me is that ''modern'' Muslim people drink alcohol, even though officially it's forbidden. But moreover, they judge Muslims who don't drink alcohol because of religious beliefs. They ask ''what's wrong with you?'', label them as conservative, or old fashioned. But who said that getting drunk is something everyone has to do?

Personally I prefer these things to be not forced by religion or cultural beliefs, but by your personal decisions. For example, I'm a vegetarian. Not because my parents, my church, God, animal protection organizations, dieting specialists, doctors, etc, told me so. Because I decided. That's it.
People ask me the reason, and they expect me to say one of these things. It's so much easier to use those things, to use an excuse, than to stand by your beliefs. Because without the support of the church, God, family behind you, you're alone. And you get judged for being different. Because it was your initiative to change something about your life. No one told you to. That's the hard way.

The example that inspired me to write this article is the story of Elizabeth Scharpf, that was published in the NY Times. She had everything going for her in her script. A top university and good-paying career ahead of her. But she decided to move to Nepal and teach underprivileged children.
( read about her story at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/magazine/24volunteerism-t.html )

Crazy? Weird? or Heroic? 
What's the difference? It's in your attitude.

YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR REALITY.

What my point is, don't judge people. And choose for yourself. Don't accept things blindly. And be open for people's decisions. So what if it's a little far from what you're use to?

Every person's memory is his private literature.  ~Aldous Huxley

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.  ~Michel de Montaigne

I recently had a bit of a strange experience, which was my inspiration for this article. So let the first briefly share it with you: I started taking Spanish classes this summer, but could not take the exam at the end, because I went on vacation. When I came back two weeks later I went to take the exam, and looking at the exam paper, my mind was completely blank. I could not remember anything. I studied! Maybe not too much, because everything was still pretty fresh in my memory. Or at least I thought it was. Even more strange, I started remembering French, which I had taken for about 5 years, but its been two years since then!

Has something like this ever happen to you before?

It was a first for me. And it really got me thinking. Yes, of course I know about short-term and long-term memory. But I have never met face to face with this phenomenon before, and so clearly.

So let me first explain a bit in case you're not familiar with the subject. Memory works in two different ways: short-term and long-term. The difference is the length of time the information is stored.

The information stored in short-term memory is available only for a limited period of time, but long-term memory can store much larger quantities of information for potentially unlimited period of time. Its capacity is immeasurably large.

So that is why you can remember which flowers grew in your mother's garden when you were four years old, but you can't remember what your teacher said just ten minutes earlier. Strange, isn't it?

So my question is, when do we use which memory type, and is it possible to do it consciously?

It seems to me that the entire system of education, not just in Turkey, but in the world, is based on short-term memory. It's overloaded, unorganized and mostly unnecessary. Students are given a chaotic soup of information, from which it is hoped that they retain at least, I don't know, maybe 20% at most? At least the basics. But some don't even retain that much.

There is a bit of a logic behind this system, I suppose, to expose the students to a maximum variety of different subjects, so they learn a little bit of everything and later in life can choose, already knowing a bit about their specialty. But does that work really? I went to a private high school in Ukraine. We had advanced physics, chemistry, law, economics, maths. I graduated with excellence. Now, I sometimes hesitate when counting change when buying things.

I think there is a difference between giving students a large variety of information, and pushing them to a point of exhaustion. After a while, if there is too much, instead of learning a bit of everything, you learn nothing at all. If there is too much, the memory gets tired and confused.

Really, it seems strange that teachers don't understand this when creating syllabuses. Give students 30 pages to read, or give them a summary? And if they want more details, then give them a book. In a perfect world they would read. But we have to be realistic and practical. People simply do not need to know the detailed and inner workings of every subject. They need practical knowledge. And when they choose what they want to do in life, then they can go into details. But then it will be voluntary.

I think that the difference between whether or not you use short term memory or long term isn't only in repetition. It has to do with interest. If you like a subject, if it is important to you, or if it is fun, you are much more likely to remember.

I had a math teacher in 6th grade, who was the best teacher I ever had. He once made us all close our eyes, while he went out and came back with a guitar, pretending to be our teacher's twin brother, and played/sang us a song in which some of the lyrics were math formulas we had to memorize. About 8 years later, I still remember the melody and lyrics to the song. Enough said.

What do you think?