This post contains affiliate links.
In my personal and professional life I pride myself in being someone who has a wide range of knowledge. I have found that I have a natural curiosity and desire to learn about as much as I can about anything related to technology, science and a few other categories. As a child I used to read the entire encyclopedia volumes from A – Z and even spent some time reading the entire Webster’s Dictionary including every single word and meaning.
Unfortunately, I am also cursed with having a odd sense of memory. I have a fantastic memory for some things, but a terrible memory for others. I don’t seem to have the ability to pick and choose what information “burns†into my mind and what information does not, as a result I may read an obscure fact about a fish species six months ago and be able to recall that information instantly, but last week I could had an entire conversation with someone and barely be able to recall what we talked about.
Science and Technology of all sorts and categories are one of the items that tend to stay lodged in my brain, music lyrics however are very difficult, I could listen to most rock music songs twenty times and still never be able to remember the lyrics. I also have a very poor memory for things I listen to, but a much better memory for things that I read or watch.
One of the funniest things about my poor memory, is I can tell you that Celery is the only negative calorie food item on the planet, that lightning travels at 186,000 miles per second, and almost every line from the movie “Tombstoneâ€, but if you asked me to recite any one of the 300 poems I wrote in the past year I could not recite a single one, all I would remember is the topics of a few of them, maybe a few words.
So I find it funny that I sometimes browse my own poetry blog and see poems I have written that I didn’t remember I had wrote until after reading it again months later. Perhaps this is a side effect from churning out so many poems, I heard that some song writers and musicians actually have a hard time remembering their own lyrics until they rehearse them dozens of times over and over, so maybe it isn’t that uncommon.
I am a firm believer in knowledge is power and the more you information you know the better off you are, life is too short to squander it in ignorance. I try to read and learn as many new things every single day in my life and I visit Wikipedia and news sites often to try and learn something. I read popular science magazines and such every time I use the restroom and actually do almost all of my “non computer†reading in the restroom on bio breaks.
My coworkers sometimes refer to me as Google Justin, or Wiki Justin in my ability to recall some facts and obscure information in so many topics ranges. I just enjoy learning and spreading my information and I think more people should spend time expanding their knowledge; you never know when you may be in a social situation where that information could come in handy.
-Justin Germino