My photographic memory

I've known about it all of my life, heard about it, saw others wow over it. It's been my claim to fame, one of my most identifiable traits throughout my entire life, especially in high school. It's my amazingly good memory.

Over the years, I have memorized many, random facts about information. Many of them for school, many just for the heck of it. This is the type of thing that has helped me excel in trivia competitions (see the previous blog for that) Stuff about the U.S. Presidents, high school and college mascot names, children's names of friends and co-workers, birthdays, songs. The most amazing and perplexing (even in my mind) is when I memorized nearly everyone's schedule back in high school. I accomplished this feat for 6 straight years at Blacksburg High School (it is an extremely small high school and was 7-12 back in the 90s with around 600 students).

Many have asked how I did it. I was honestly never 100 percent sure how. I know it wasn't a mathematical formula, quadratic equation or the like. I then decided to break down how I did it.

I was extremely close with the guidance office and guidance counselors. I initially had access to student schedules, which faciliated the process. That was then evasive and a little trivial for me. I then used another unorthodox but less creepy method. You see, the guidance office had a matrix/grid of all the teachers at Blacksburg High School, their schedules persay. What classes they taught, the classes offered, when they taught them, and when their planning period was. There were 8 periods at BHS: one being homeroom and another one being lunch. Therefore, each student had 6 classes (or 6 periods to occupy 6 classes, one could even be an early dismissal period in the 8th period). The teachers actually taught 5 classes/day, with the 6th period for them being their planning period.

Having this information in hand, I would then be able to construct a student's schedule in my mind. I basically used this information and the process of elimination to see which classes they had, did not have, and could only have during a certain time. For example, if they were taking French II and French II was only offered during 2nd or 8th period, I knew then which class they had for one of those timeframes. A schedule was easier for classes such as band, home economics, or an AP class, since only one of those were offered. I then knew the ONLY time they could take this class and when the class would take place. Of course I would have to know a little about the student also. The small school aspect worked well for me here since pretty much everyone knew everyone else. You knew who the smart kids were, the band students, vocational school students, so you knew what types of classes a student would take typically. There were certain curriculums for college prep students and for vocational students. The only dilemma then was fitting in the electives and various other pre-requistes they needed to graduate and such. Once I would figure this out (this would take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month of just random observation, NOT stalking, and talking with folks about classes and listening to them talk about teachers and such). I would then know their class schedules and would often not forget them for that school year, or years to come.

So there it is BHS classmates (and anyone else interested). That's how I memorized the schedules. It was said that I had a photographic memory, meaning I could automatically retain what I saw. This was often not as easy as someone like me that could retain hundreds of student schedules would make it appear.

I'm truly blessed at 32 to be able to remember what I can. I can no longer remember too many student schedules anymore. I do still remember U.S. Presidents stuff and other random information though. Many of the schedule information was retained and learned over 14 years ago. Consequently, it is since been discarded from my mind and memory. People would be amazed over it and still are. There are teachers that to this day tell their current students about me. My former classmates (some of you reading this blog) would tell their friends, spouses, and children. It was definitely an amazing ride.

I have found, however, that NOT many folks outside of Cherokee County understood or were amazed by all of this. Sure they thought it was great that I could remember all of this info. But they were creeped out about it. Like "how does he know this about a person and why?" I guess it was a BHS thing, I'm not sure.

My mom once asked after my 10-year high school reunion when that's all folks could discuss regarding me was the schedule thing "Is that all they remember about you?". I would like to think not. Once again, I believe it was my claim to fame, and my identifying trait. I felt that's how I left my mark in Blacksburg. I don't see it as a negative thing either. Not to be judgmental, but I would rather be remembered for that than for being a thug, rapist, hoodlum, slacker, or not be remembered by all. In short, I'm cool with being remembered for remembering stuff.

I really want to keep the good memories of my past close to my heart, as this world is filled with enough negativity. I think back to those times with fondness, as I had a gift, and folks recognized it. It was a cool time to be young,and it's good that I was more highly regarded than I ever thought I would be years ago.

Now if only my blogs would be remembered like that. But hey, that's another story for another day. I'm just thankful for the positive things that people do identify me with.