I Don't Remember

Writing Exercise from 9/11/2009

This time, begin with the phrase, "I don't remember," and fill up a page. If you draw a blank at any point, repeat the phrase "I don't remember," in writing, until something else forms in your consciousness. Notice if one of these non-memories suggests a section of a piece, an experience for one of your characters, or perhaps a topic to write about. Notice what subjects of non-memories emerge: are they the same themes you write about? If not, further explore one of the new ones.

I don't remember much about my life before high school. Some people say it's because it was a long time ago, but I know that is not the truth. While, yes, it was a long time ago, the reality is that there just wasn't much worth remembering before high school. Then again, I could be wrong-- how would I know if there's anything worth remembering if I can't remember.
Maybe what really happened is that I hit my head on the first day of high school-- no, make that the last day of middle school-- and forgot everything that had happened in my life prior to that day.
Or maybe it's like some crazy plot in a soap opera-- Perhaps I was kidnapped by some evil genius and brainwashed to do his dirty deeds. That sounds about right. I can almost see his sinister face looming over me as I begged him not to take the pleasant memories of my childhood away from me-- not to replace them with traumatic ones.
Or maybe I was right before about hitting my head, only like in the soaps, or maybe romantic comedies, I woke up and found that high school and college were just a dream.
I don't remember much about my childhood-- maybe because I was abducted by aliens when I was seven... Alright, so that one's a little far-fetched even for me.
Or what if I was drug off into the woods by a pack of bears and forced to live with them for several years and when I was finally rescued I suffered from PTSD and became agorophobic and refused to leave the house because I was traumatized but didn't really know why so I started seeing a psychologist who was paid by my parents to plant false memories so that I wouldn't remember the horrible things that had happened with the bears but my whole existance was then a sham because all of my memories were created by somebody else.
I don't remember most of my life before high school, so I think I'll just make it up.