The time I did something stupid (aka just another Sunday)

There's this concept that exists in psychology which states that people are far more likely to remember things if they are in the state they were in when they first learned them. It's called State Dependent Memory, and I tell you the name of it not because you are interested in psych, but because you can google it and get a better description than whatever I manage to come up with. An example I remember from a TV show that reflects this is when one of the characters was late because he had never driven to his destination sober and had a difficult time recalling how to get there.

I tell you this because I had an experience like that today. Well, mine didn't involve alcohol. It involved runner's high, which in the interest of making this post actually readable and not a bunch of useless definitions, I will refrain from describing. Again, google. Anyway, I went out jogging today, but it involved more walking than jogging because I also went jogging yesterday and I was a little sore. When I go jog, I usually head into the U of M campus and then stumble around there until I find a path to stick with, then follow it for a while. This is how I figured out I have state dependent memory when I jog because I got lost. And not lost in the way I usually use the word lost, where I go "oooh look at me I'm on a path I've never been on where I can see a road that will take me back home oooh look how lost I am", but in the sense of "I don't believe I know how the hell to get home." That's the type of lost I was today.

When I had this realization, I slowed to a walk, which I always do when I'm confused on which way to go next. Then, I tried to remember how I had gotten to where I was, and could not recall any details of the path I had taken 20 minutes earlier. I knew I had been on University Ave for two miles then turned, but I couldn't remember what that turn consisted of and how to get back there. Not to mention that I don't like retracing my steps when I jog. It ruins one of the reasons I'm outside jogging and not in a gym somewhere. I enjoy the novelty of taking multiple winding paths and seeing different buildings. I don't enjoy being on a treadmill and staring at the same wall for half an hour. I seek varying environments, not the same thing I saw before I got lost.

After attempting to find a new path that would take me home, and deciding that such a thing did not exist, I reluctantly stumbled back onto University Avenue and made the trip back. Though I couldn't recall the path I had taken to get on that road in the first place, so I ended up switching up my return route in the end. But I struggle to remember my exact path, and I might not be able to figure it out even if I went out again. I do tend to take some weird turns and go off the beaten road. Though if I was jogging while I tried to figure it out, I do believe that it would come to me as if it was second nature. State Dependent Memory in action.