Evidence of Things Unseen

I've been back in the land of snow for all of five days. Yesterday, I was diagnosed, by a fellow classmate, with a bad case of acute homesickness, precipitated by seemingly endless snowfall. The first few days after visiting home are always tough. Mostly, because all of my recent memories and thoughts are about people and places I'm currently a country away from.

In the days leading up to winter break, we had a series of neurology lectures. At one point, our professor mentioned that memories are stored throughout the entire cortex of the brain. Meaning that while there is a single structure responsible for making new memories (the hippocampus), no such structure exists for memory storage. Rather, our memories are stored over the entire surface of our brains. So everything we are, everything we think, and believe and feel and dream, is literally surrounded by our memories. So. Cool.

So while the immediate post-departure sadness of leaving home is frustrating, there is something beautiful in knowing that even though I'm miles away from home, living on the wrong coast, buried in a foot and a half of snow, the primary organ that makes up "me" is blanketed with memories of the people and places I love.

While you read this, I hope that you're close to your loved ones (and places!). But, on this chilly winter night, if you find yourself far away from everything that makes you "you," take comfort in knowing that, in a way, everything you do and everything you are is wrapped up in moments passed. And, should you ever feel the need to take a trip down memory lane, your memories are quite actually on the surface of your mind, just waiting to be remembered.