My earliest memory occurred at age 2. I went to the zoo with my parents and my grandparents, and I saw a giraffe for the first time and took a picture with it. My personality is still similar, but my identity is different. My experiences have changed me and the way I think and act is very dissimilar to when I was 2. I also remember the ugly brown 4 door car we drove to the zoo in.
Both our first memories are from around two years old. Perhaps this illustrates that this is the time when our brain's begin to develop memory capacity structures for long-term memory. Also, my memory is also very brief and has a lack of detail as well. I find it surprising that so many people's first memories deal with family...
My first memory is also of an animal (turtle). I think that many people remember seeing or interacting with animals as one of their first memories because it can be a fascinating experience encountering a living being that's not like the humans you've been around for the majority of your young life.
I really think that it is fascinating that most early memories, including ours, are of our families and what we did with them instead of something like our first personal achievement or our first word. Our memories are not targeted on physical goal or accomplishments but are rather of memories of happiness or sorrow or fear. They relate more to our emotions instead of more methodical things, which is one of the things that Schachtel harps on--the fact that we remember things based on what we feel and not on our accomlishments because those accomplishments, such as learning language, get continuously used and practiced so that we cannot explain what exactly we are doing or how or when we learned it.
It is really fascinating that you can remember that far back. I know that my earliest memory is of me at around age 6, which is a lot later than yours. Not only did you remember all the way back to then, but you remembered it with some detail. The fact that you can even remember the car that you drove in is really interesting. Also, I do agree that our experiences shape the way we act and think however for me at least, I regarded myself from my memory to be very similar to the person that I am today. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I was a little bit older (6) and I was a little bit more mature than say a 2 year old.
It is quite interesting how we can hold onto a small detail like the color of a car from 16+ years ago, but can't remember what we ate for breakfast the other day. I feel as though we remember such things because for some reason or another, they were important to us. Something as important as going to the zoo for the first time is memorable and you will probably hold onto it for a long time to come.
