Some dates stand out. Not in the ways that birthdays stand out. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas etc. can merge into one without a memory tag to hold on to. I find it hard to distinguish between different years, where I was, what I did, the presents given and received.
But some dates stand out because they call across time. The event was significant and the date had to be remembered. It is a memory tag created automatically, without the effort.
This struck me last week because the year before I was writing a professional exam. I'd had 18 January in my diary and in my mind in preparing for it. The exam - and the trip to the capital the day before to stay in a hotel - come easily to mind.
The 18th January 2011 was a Tuesday. A day earlier than this year. Which gives me a reference for every day last year: shift them back one day of the week. It works for a couple of years before that too, until the leap year trips things up.
Flip back another year and I can't remember what I was doing on 18 January 2010 (a Monday), but I can work out where I must have been. It is an interesting exercise to travel back in time, catching the flavour of mid-January for successive years, if not distinct memories.
Jumping through the years the changes of life are more distinct.
So many days, but such a short time ago, I was a child.
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