Transferable Experiences

I was at a writing conference this past weekend and the keynote speaker spoke to us about knowledge transfer.  Knowledge transfer is basically when students utilize skills from a previous learning experience to help them perform a present task in our classrooms.  It was a very interesting discussion that led my mind to drift wondering about transfer...

Transfer in our own lives...

What experiences transfer from childhood into our adult lives?  How do they transfer?  After this speaker's address, I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about my kids.  What days/experiences would transfer as they get older? What will they remember?

My mind thought in horror...oh!  Will they remember those snow days when we all were getting on each other's nerves.  You know...those "Mom of the Year" moments where I was yelling at them to just "calm down".  And Colleen proclaiming, "Mommy is a mean mommy".  Oooh!  I shudder just thinking of it.

Or, will they remember our dance parties in the kitchen; twirling around to the sounds of music while laughing our heads off?  Perhaps they will recall story time before bed where Mommy and Daddy do all of the silly voices while laying with our precious ones snuggled in their beds.

The mind reels.

So, I brought this topic up at a dinner with our friends.  We were talking about going to Disney World and I asked one of them what he remembered about Disney World as a kid?  He said, "Space Mountain, It's a Small World...that's pretty much it.".  Huh!  That's what I remembered too, except with a little "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" and "Snow White" thrown in for good measure.  But, it got me thinking.  How long had our parents planned, scrimped, ruminated, and saved to make this magical vacation for their children---only to have us remember 3 things?  Why doesn't every magical moment transfer?

The memories that transfer most from my childhood are happy, everyday events.  I remember those in detail.  For example, I used to hang out on the front porch of our house and pretend to be sauteing up some greenery from our front lawn.  I was preparing dinner for my husband, Han Solo, while fighting off bad guys from our kitchen.  I remember the pungent scent of the lilac bushes in our side lawn and using the leaves as currency to buy my groceries.  I also converted a stinky, moldy shed into a home for my dolls and Han.  I spray painted it silver and didn't worry that while I was fixing up the shed, the boys from our neighborhood borrowed my spray paint to spray slugs.  Ah, youth!

I know that as my parents read this blog, they will be thinking....what about this vacation or that special treat/event we shared?  I would be asking those questions as well, if I were them.  But, what I have realized is that it is the everyday, run of the mill days that transfer into my memory.  The good stuff is in the small stuff.

So, for my children, I really hope that the memories they transfer into adulthood and reminisce about in their older years will reflect the warm and happy feelings in the song "These are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs and not the dreary, filled-with-regret tune "Holding Back the Years" by Simply Red.