my biggest fear

I've decided what my biggest fear is. It isn't something silly like heights or snakes. It isn't inadequacy or being weak. It isn't even death. My biggest fear is one day forgetting.

I'm not a huge fan of The Notebook but it did make me think. It made me think about Alzheimer's, about dementia, and about the possibility of one day not being able to remember.

You don't have to be a diehard fan of the movie but you can at least appreciate the idea behind it. I know the last time I saw it I was a somewhat ignorant 14 or 15 year old boy. I said that it was a stupid love story, a useless rom-com, and a chick flick. I didn't pay attention to what was actually going on.

It isn't so much the love story I think I can learn from, it's the fact that you can forget it all. It doesn't have to be something as spectacular as a Noah Calhoun/Allie Hamilton love affair that you are forgetting. It can be faces, names, or moments in time. I guess in reality that's what any love story is. It's just a series of moments in time, intertwined in a way that creates something great. What's especially scary to me is what happens when it worsens. After you forget the names and faces of friends and family do you begin to forget yourself?

We work all our lives to make memories, friends, and a family and the idea that we can forget it all is scary. Our name is something that travels with us from birth to death, but what good is a name that you yourself can no longer remember?

I guess all we can do is live each day and night to their fullest. I can't let the fear of forgetting prevent me from doing.

So I guess that's a New Year's vow I can make to myself: Make each day worth remembering.

NP: Drops of Jupiter- Train