Photo by Colton Duke on Unsplash

I like to look back, but I don’t ever want to get lost again.

The Importance of Looking Back

Remembering our past is remembering our experience and what shaped us.

Spencer Pollock
5 min readDec 31, 2021

We are told not to dwell on the past; it’s something that cannot be changed or edited. Experiences shape us and make us who we are. Who we grew up with, who raised us, they all help shape and mold us into the people we are today; whether we like it or not.

It’s difficult to face one’s past, but the past is where we can learn the most from. What we experience is a first-hand experience — that realistically if we don’t learn from we are doomed to repeat. Churchill said it best:

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Sir Winston Churchill

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

What we “choose to forget” (because you “should” remember things — that’s why we write things down or note them somewhere) may not seem like much now, but as time passes on there is even more information thrown into your face to deal with that all you have left of the past is memories that are notorious for being misremembered. The best way to combat this is to document and continue forward.

Writing, pictures, videos; multimedia is our window to different time. It’s where we continue to glean critical information, and the best way to portray things verbatim and without modification. Yes, editing documents exist; yes, photoshop and video editing exist; yes, I can come back and re-write this article — but that defeats the purpose of taking it in the first place. The concept is to remember as is. To remember what really happened.

If we don’t remember what really happened, we are doomed to repeat and let the cycle continue. Personally, moving forward seems like a better option; and I want those neat virtual displays like in the MCU that Tony Stark has when building the Iron Man suit.

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Spencer Pollock

💻Software Engineer | Game Developer | DevOps | Project Enthusiest | Technical Writer — Working to make things simpler. I’ll tell you my story as it unfolds 📖