I've had a bad memory my whole life.
I remember going in for so many different tests so adults could figure out why I didn't learn things as quickly as the other kids. After every test, my results would come out inconclusive. As it turns out, I just have a really bad memory, and other people out there with a bad memory can definitely relate. Sometimes it has its perks. For instance, when you want to forget an embarrassing event, you're set. Most of the time, though, it's hard because you forget everything. Most assume that people with bad memories don't care, when actually we do. We just can't remember.
School, no matter what age, is a very difficult time for people with bad memories. Taking notes is probably the easiest part of class, but remembering what you wrote down is the problem. Quizzes and tests are the hardest thing to prepare for. Multiple choice tests are usually OK because the answer is there. You just have to make sure you select the right one. It gets tricky when the test is all short answer and fill in the blank. Remembering specific things is very difficult for anyone, but when you have a bad memory, it's even harder.
Everyone's memory is different, but there are many of us that have bad memory. Some people with bad memories forget what they're getting at the grocery store, or to pick up something from the way home from work. If you forget little things like that, your bad memory isn't that bad. If you're like me, you can't remember childhood memories that well, or you remember an event differently than your friend, or you can't even remember if you were there or not. Basically, people with bad memories have to figure out the best way for them to learn to make remembering things a lot easier. Some people are visual learners and some are auditory. Again, everyone's brain is different, so we all learn in different ways.
Another struggle with having a bad memory is not remembering faces, names and birthdays. Every now and then, people with good memories forget some of these things. For instance, my cousin usually has a pretty good memory, but for some reason, he can never remember all of our cousins' names, even though he's known most of them his whole life. It can be really awkward in some situations when someone you know sees you, and you know that you know them but you completely forget their name, so you don't know how to address them. Forgetting about a person is also really awkward and it happens to me way too much. For example, your friend could be talking about someone you knew, and you could completely forget they even were a person.
Having a bad memory definitely has its ups and downs, but unless you work on having a better memory, there really isn't much that you can do about it. So embrace your bad memory, and know that you're not the only one out there.
