Writing to Remember
one thing that has always troubled me is how quickly so much get forgotten, at every scale. it makes me approach a lot of my writing as an act of remembrance
— Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv)
April 16, 2025
In this day and age, feeling lost is seen as loser behaviour. Once, at someone's wake, this woman made a passing comment about how she told her son to hurry up and look for a job before he became one of society's pests. While she was saying that, she didn't realise I was pretty much in the same boat, and so, I could empathise.
Most adults don't empathise with the younger generation for two reasons: they value different things and they've forgotten what it was like to be young. The young value freedom and autonomy, whilst the old value safety and security. Both are valid, but not mutually exclusive.
While ranting to a friend, he told me: "Weren't they young once? They should understand, but they don't." But the reality is that with every transition, people forget who they once were. Most prioritise taking photos over writing, and so the values, thoughts, and emotions attached to those moments fade. That's why writing is so important—you learn to honour your past, thoughts, reflections, and all, even if you dislike who you were back then.
Sometimes when I think the thoughts in my head are insignificant and annoying, I am reminded that they will one day be remnants of who I once was. My thoughts are not me, and yet, they will go on to shape me as a person.
I'll admit I don't write as much as I used to because I'm embarrassed of just how many insignificant thoughts power through my brain. I used to write them down, but now that I'm older, I think there are more important things I can write about other than what I did today.
But here's the thing: those insignificant thoughts are part of a larger network of how you perceive reality. To lose those is to lose touch with your younger self. That's why so many adults can no longer remember what happened 20-30 years ago, because it was never recorded via the written word. The images remain, but the thoughts remain forgotten. People prioritise images over words, when yes, memories do invoke the past but words can act as a historical recollection of the past. And that's why we write—to honour the past, capture the present, and prepare for the future.