The Basics

Hey there, reader! 
Before this goes any further, I want to establish 'the basics' before we launch into my life at 17 years old. You're probably thinking oh no, not this spiel again with an added groan. But let me tell you this: you don't have to carry on reading nor is this your average joe in the literature world. Ok, maybe it is. I told myself I wouldn't ramble, but I guess this is rambling. To the basics.

During my early years, I was a normal kid. Well, as normal as the next kid. I had and still have brown hair and the boring hazel eyes that is neither unique or eye catching. Get it? Eye catching? Because it's my eyes? Never mind. I liked running around, playing dress up and making up imaginary life dreams and goals. To this day, I'm still determined to become a doctor who spends some days teaching and then travelling to the moon as an astronaut as well as becoming a world class chef. Ok, I was ambitious. Who wasn't?

My point is that when I hit my 7th birthday everything gradually went downhill. Or uphill, depending on your perspective. I can remember everything from sounds to pictures to...anything. Like the clothes you wore the day before yesterday, or the day before that or even the day before the day before that. Catch my drift? It wasn't like I woke up on my birthday and I could reel off all the cities in the world. It wasn't an overnight wonder.

It was like learning- it was baby steps. First I could recall our food shopping lists without any effort (which significantly reduced our need to remember to write things down or the scuffle of trying to find the list when we were in the store) and then I could remember everything my teachers said in classes (even though at that age I wouldn't really call them lessons, more of a fun way of learning the basics to everything, much like this chapter). And then it reached the really creepy, stalker-ish stage where I could remember what my friends said in passing. For instance, "You're having pizza again for lunch? You already ate it for lunch on Monday, and last week on Friday and last week on Wednesday maybe you should instil some variety in your diet." Yeah, we weren't friends for long after that awkward stare. And now? Now, I remember 'everything' in my life, I've just had the experience and knowledge to tone it down and filter my thoughts to other people.

We- as in my parents and a various array of doctors- don't know how this magic memory came about but there were loads of suggestions. Maybe my mum's love of classical music triggered some cognitive development in my brain in my early stages. Perhaps my dad took me to too many workshops growing up where you could try any activity you wanted. Or even my subconscious was bored at one point in my life and decided to become the next Matilda from Roald Dahl and graced me with this ability. When I read that book, I got super excited and tried to move objects with my mind. It didn't work. Many dreams were created and crushed that day. 

I think that covers everything. Oh wait, how silly of me to forget. My name is Alice Moore and I'm a walking weirdo. That is a bit self-deprecating, but in all honesty, I could have been handed any super power or awesome gift possible and I got the one at the bottom end of the spectrum. Excellent memory. Would you even call that a gift? Well, it's something. And this something has given me a whole life's worth of praise, curiosity, probing and of course, alienation. If you are wondering where this story is going, well, your guess is as good as mine because as I mentioned before, my only gift is memory and fortune telling or predicting the future isn't in my hand. Let's go.