My Earliest Memory- To recall my earliest memory, I must delve deep into my mind....all the way back to my preschool days. The memory involves my teacher in 3-year old preschool ( so I was obviously 3 years old at that time). I specifically remember being very angry and frustrated with her because she constantly refused to let me drink chocolate milk during lunch. All the other kids seemed to be allowed to drink it whenever they liked, but I felt that she has some sort of personnal vendetta against me.
Looking back on that yound child who grew so frustrated over something so simple as chocolate milk, I find it difficult to compare myself with him. However, I certainly recognise him as myself since he still has all the potential to develope the personality traits that define me. In fact, some of them are already there. For example, the frustration I felt at that age could certainly correlate with similar frustrations that I feel now- the only difference is that I would handle them differently.
This is kind of the same experience that I had, minus the anger part, and the part about milk and pre-school. What I'm referring to is the reference to myself. I feel that I am the same person but my personality is completely different.
I identify a lot with this memory because when I was in preschool, the most suspenseful time of the day was right before snacktime when the milkman rolled a trolley with crates of milk cartons into the classroom, and we would all try to peek into the crates to see whether if we would have chocolate or plain milk with our honey graham crackers today. Whenever we had plain milk, lots of kids just straight up drank all they needed to wash down the crackers, then asked the teacher to dump the rest into the sink even when the teacher suggested that they finish the milk. But instead of following suit, I wanted to please my teacher and I always finished my milk, no matter how disappointed I was at the fact that we didn't get to have chocolate milk that particular day.
I feel like I still like to please people by accommodating to their requests and wants.
Everyone seems to have at least one memory about milk and preschool...I remember when I went to preschool, they made me drink milk. I hated milk and never wanted to drink it. I remember every time milk tray came to our room, i started making excuses that i can't drink milk. I remember my teacher's facial expressions when i told her i was allergic to milk. Thankfully, my mom understood me and collaborated my story so i didn't have to drink it for rest of the year.
-- Edited by 102intro on Friday 16th of October 2009 08:17:05 PM
I also connect to my earliest memory in the same way. I feel that I share similar familiar personality traits as the little me, such as similar feelings of shyness and embarrassment, but the way that I now handle these feelings is different. For example, in my earliest memory, I was too afraid to ask my pre-k teacher to go to the bathroom so I closed my eyes and hoped the situation would go away. These days, even if I might feel afraid or shy, I accomplish the task at hand instead of just hoping it will go away.
