Being Reminded of the Past

Do you have certain places that always bring back memories of a particular event or person from your past, even a non-significant event? Maybe something like driving by a particular hotel chain reminds you of a person or driving by an exit on the interstate reminds you of that one time you took a trip down that road.


I have found myself being reminded of some rather inconsequential things just by driving by. Whenever I drive by exit 233 on I-75 I think about going to the state Science Olympiad in 9th grade. We stayed at a Hampton Inn there, but the competition was actually at Georgia Tech. However, I never had recollections of the Science Olympiad when I was at the same places as a student at Georgia Tech. When I go to the downtown Atlanta around the Hyatt Regency Hotel, I always remember the Beta Club convention when I was in 11th grade, and I remember the drama between Sharon, me, and others that weekend much more so than actually winning the math competition.

When I drive by the Atlanta hostel on my way to Chipotle on Ponce, I can’t help but think of Dana, dropping her off there on a late Saturday night, and still wondering why I didn’t kiss her and whether that had any effect on what transpired over the next couple of months. When I drive by exit 3 on I-475 around Macon, I always have a brief recollection of Casey Michael and how we used to meet at a McDonald’s there after he moved from Valdosta to Dahlonega when we were about 10 years old. When I go to Cheddar’s, a place I go quite a bit, I am reminded of the first time Hillery and I met intentionally. And now a particular bar in Columbia will surely remind me of Brittany and the silliness that has gone down there and around there in the last couple of months.

I’m sure there are lots more things like this and I guess these are good kinds of memories to have. They do correspond to happy times in my life even though the Science Olympiad one doesn’t fit in because it wasn’t a particularly memorable trip and there’s no person from that trip that sticks out at all as ever being particularly important to me.