When it happened?
What you forgot?
What was the result of your forgetting?
Why it was important?
I have recently graduated from college and my major was finance. Though I have already left college, my memories related to my academic years are still vivid. On one occasion, I forgot to submit an important assignment. I was in my 8th semester at that time and in coursework, we were supposed to submit an assignment that alone carried 40% marks of this course. The pass mark for each coursework was 50% and due to this, the assignment was so crucial for every student.
The teacher who took this course was a guest teacher from another college. In the last month of our course, he assigned individual assignments to every student and gave us a deadline for the submission. He warned us not to copy-and-paste any part of the assignment. I worked on the assignment and completed almost 80% to 85% of it until I got a severe fever. I had to see a doctor and take medicine to recover from this viral fever. The medical report showed that it was viral fever and there was nothing to worry about. After a week I joined the class but unfortunately, I completely forgot my deadline for the assignment and the due date was already over! I possibly forgot it due to my sickness and distractions caused by it. Sometimes the fever was so severe that I had to take several pills together. Â
Soon after I realised that I have missed my deadline, I tried to contact professor Stuart but I heard that he would not be available until the next week. It was quite a frustrating experience for me. I then concentrated on finishing my assignment and waited for the professor to get back to our college. Next week, I met him and explained everything. To my surprise, he did not seem convinced. I told him that I can show him my medical as well as the test reports, but he looked like he did not care.
He got busy on his cell phone and I was literally broke! After he finished his phone conversation, he suddenly asked me the name and address of the doctor whom I saw during my illness. He, in fact, did contact this doctor and saw him personally, which I learned at a later time. He wanted to be sure that I was not making an excuse for the delay to submit my assignment and was genuinely ill. To my relief, two days later he called me into his room and gave me an email address. He asked me to send my assignment to this email address within 12 hours. I would like to mention before ending my story that I got an ‘A’ on this assignment.
Follow-ups
1. How memory can help you to learn a new skill?
Memory is essential in learning a new skill. It is only through a good memory that we can remember the rules or the techniques that are required to be followed when learning a particular skill.
2. Do you think memory is important?
Yes, I do. If we couldn’t remember certain things, life would be very awkward and difficult. Our memories hold a lot of important information we use all the time, every day, just to live.
3. Do you think it’s important to have a good memory?
It can certainly help make things easier. If you can remember things easily and not forget them it can be very beneficial. Activities such as studying and learning seem much easier, for example, learning English is much easier if you can remember all the vocabulary and grammar you learn and how to use it correctly, and if you can recall things easily it can save you a lot of time instead of having to look up information or ask someone else if they know.
4.What are some of the benefits of having a good memory?
It can help you avoid embarrassing social situations if you never forget someone’s birthday, or if you don’t forget people’s names when you haven’t seen them for a long time.It can also be useful in activities like quizzes or competitions which rely on general knowledge if you can remember the relevant information and answer the questions. And I suppose it’s probably a good thing in relation to your career or work if you are able to recall information which is relevant without having to ask someone else to help, or refer to a reference book or something like that.
5. Are there any things that are especially important for people to memorize?
I suppose it depends on the situation. Everything is important to some people. I mean most people get upset if their friends or someone close forgets their birthday or a special occasion like an anniversary.
A lot of things we do which seem to be automatic such as getting dressed or driving a car actually rely on memory. If we forgot, or couldn’t remember part of the process we would be in big trouble! If you were a musician, it might be important to remember a piece of music or combination of notes for a particular piece of music.