The way past memories have influenced my life.

How can memories help determine the decisions a person makes in their future? That is something I have thought of a lot recently, and have formed an opinion based off of one significant memory in my past. Memories of my past have influenced my decisions a lot, some major and some minor. When I was moving from Pittsburgh to Colorado that memory I think will never leave me. I remember it so clearly. It truly began at the end of March 2022, on Saturday before I left Sunday. It was my best friend's birthday, so I got dropped off at his house at around noon. There were about 20 of us overall and his parents rented out a movie theater and we all watched The Batman movie when it first came out. His parents got custom shirts made that say “Joey is My Hero” with a picture of him in a massive fur coat. If anyone knows Joey it would make them laugh. During the movie, people were throwing things and just overall having a fun time together because at least for me it was my last time like that since. People were throwing each other's shoes and stuff at each other in the middle of the movie and it was so fun. Then they started throwing popcorn at each other, when having a massive head of dangling curls it doesn't end well when popcorn is being thrown around. I remember leaving the theater there was a bunch of popcorn stuck in my hair. However after the movie, there was an upstairs of the movie theater we went to, we played some games and overall had a good time, until about half of the people left and then the rest of us all split up into Joey's Moms, dads, and sister scar and we were all going to meet back at Joey's house. But on the ride back, I was in the Car with Joey’s Mom, Joey, Gideon, Ryan, and myself. We all stopped at a gas station before we got back and we got like 12 monsters and were listening to Carti on the way back to Joey's house, which Carti in 2022 hit differently. But when we got back we all went to Joey's downstairs there were about 8-10 of us. Joey's basement is crazy, he has like a 70-inch TV, PS5, and multiple beds just lying down there. Then connected to that room was both an indoor gym, where there were weights of course but also a sauna. We fit about 7 of us into this sauna and were blasting music. We overall just enjoyed that night and had fun doing a few other crazy things, and we didn't end up going to bed until like 2 in the morning. But when I woke up around 8 in the morning, I woke up first before everyone and I was overcome with this sadness knowing that in a few hours ,I would be in a car driving 20 hours to a state I had never seen and knew nothing about, besides their sports teams. But I kind of just brushed it off then about 30 minutes later everyone else woke up. W then went upstairs and Joey made us his “famous” as he calls them, cinnamon butter waffles. I could understand why he called them famous because they were very good. But before I knew it, it was about 11 in the morning and I heard the doorbell ring, I felt frozen, even though I didn't know who it was, I had a feeling and my feeling was right, it was time for me to leave, and I left. I went back to my grandparents first to talk to them and their dog, my best friend who at the time was about 12, my mom got him around the same age as me when I was about 1. But I had to say goodbye which I did and we began driving. A lot of the drive is a blur because I just thought about everything I had back in Pittsburgh and how I was leaving it. For most of the drive, I sat in the back seat with my 2 dogs and just looked at photos and videos of the night before remembering all the fun I had, I wondered to myself if I ever would have fun like that again, without Joey. As of now, that answer is no. I think during that car ride when I was switched, I felt almost betrayed like no matter how close I get with people they will just be taken away or we will be separated for some reason. So overall that memory of my past has shaped where I do not want to get close with people anymore because I feel that we will no matter what be taken apart. For example, I have close friends from AAU basketball that got to Chaparral, and they wanted to go to the game with me on Wednesday, but I didn't go strictly because I don't want to get too close with people anymore, I feel that if I do I will just break them without meaning to. So now I just stick to myself and try not to get close to anyone anymore. So that is by far the memory of mine that has influenced my decisions the most throughout my life since then.