auditory conditional memory

A lot of people (including scientists) believe that olfaction, or smell, is the most vivid sense for recollecting memories. They believe that smells are easily recorded in long term memory and are closely stored in your brain where emotional information is stored and that when a smell is reintroduced to you, you feel the way you felt the first time you smelled that exact smell.

Well, my smell sense must be broken because I have never had that experience with a scent.

I have, however, an unbelievable relationship between audition (the sense of hearing) and memory. It can be completely overwhelming at times. We're talking about an almost embarrassing level of overwhelming here.
Hearing certain songs, bands or even types of music sends my mind into an emotional time machine and for the duration of the song or sometimes just a few brief moments I remember everything about the past when I listened to it for the first time. We're talking time of year, where I was, what I was doing, what it smelled like, what I felt like, etc. It doesn't happen with all of my music but it happens often with certain songs. And it doesn't matter how many times I listen to the song, every time it starts, I am shot right back through time to that place where it wants me to go.

It's kind of hard for me to explain because it is so vivid and real. Even the pull back into that memory is vivid, like I am being yanked out of my shoes by my mid section and am uncontrollably thrown into the scene.

Any song by Dashboard Confessional sends me into my senior year of high school. In the hall of the history wing or in Becky's car driving around the lake in Ft. Worth. On top of the world with so much to lose and acting recklessly like I wouldn't have to answer for anything. Thank God I didn't lose anything (much) and that I didn't have to answer for a lot.

Death Cab for Cutie comes on and I am in my car during my freshman year of college driving down Bryant Street in Edmond on my way to work in the winter. Christmas lights are on in Spring Creek, I can smell the heater of my Elantra and I remember being so confused and intrigued about multiple evolving relationships. One of which turned out to be well worth it. I also remember feeling like a college student. Does that make sense? I feel like so often, I get to a place in life that I have been waiting for forever and it never feels like I expected it to. Being in high school didn't feel any different than being in Jr. High and being 18 years old didn't make me anymore of an adult than 17 did in my mind but for the first time I felt exactly like I expected to feel at a certain stage in life and that was a college student.

The Taste of Ink by The Used lands me in my dad's office one afternoon after school. The musty smell, talking online to a boy my father would have hated, feeling wanted, my feet dangling from the drafting stool.

Embarrassingly enough, Fat Lip by Sum 41 takes me to the American Legion out by the lake in Wichita Falls where I was at a garage band show at the age of 15 watching my boyfriend play the drums. Lame. I also remember my friend bringing me an extra change of clothes because she knew my parents would want to know why I smelled so much like pot and cigarettes even though I wasn't doing either. Please tell me you are laughing with me here.

I have many more that involve some of the key memories of my life but I'll leave those alone for now. Well, I got a kick out of that. I hope you weren't completely lost and that you have some kind of flash back initiator too.