That Time I (Maybe?) Gave Away A Kidney – Part 15 (A Memory Test)

February 22, 2015

Aurora in high school giving a driven look
I kinda like this old driven picture of me (from a show in high school), and thought I could use it for this post’s feeling of “Bring this test on!”

Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!

Picking up from last time

So, we get into part 3 – the best part – a test of my memory, attention, and concentration. When he tells me it’s time for a memory/concentration test, I immediately sit up taller, and my eyes get sort of intense.

I am always down to play games! And I play to win. Bring it on.

He can see my intensity in my eyes. He sees my total physical change when a competition’s on the line. He makes some sweet, fun joke about my competitive personality shining through. I didn’t even realize how intense I was in body posture and facial expressions, until he mentioned it. We both yet again had a little laugh. (This was the best part of the day!)

I also was slightly nervous because I know your response time and clarity of thought is lower when you haven’t slept well. Since I didn’t sleep much, I knew I had to give this everything I had, and hope for the best.

He says he’s gonna give me 3 words, and then he’s gonna distract me.

I try to put them together in my brain so I’ll remember them as one chunk. Open your book in half, and face it down (like a triangle), put a little toy car underneath it. Boom. You have a book housing a car.

Celia Keenan-Bolger in Spelling Bee
I don’t have pic from my spelling bee. So, here’s one from my favorite musical – The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. (Credit: Broadway.com)

Maybe that’s a little too convoluted. I had some other visual options too. I also repeated the words “book, house, car” a few times in my head. Sometimes I’d silently repeat them between questions if there was time. I just wanted at least one visual reference in my mind as a backup, in case I couldn’t remember the words.

So, book, house, car.

He starts out simple, just asking me to spell. Okay, simple enough. I get the word “world.” (I was my middle school spelling bee champ; I can handle w-o-r-l-d.)

Then he asks me to spell “world” backwards. Okay, that’s a little trickier because you want to be absolutely certain you don’t mix-up or skip any letters… But you don’t want to go too slowly. So, in a somewhat quick manner, I whip out d-l-r-o-w.

Next up, it’s time to explain some idioms. (e.g. “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”) I found it surprisingly hard in the moment not to use more idioms to explain idioms. But I just stayed as calm as I could, trying to explain what the phrases meant.

He took all my answers with no qualms, so they must have been at least pretty okay.

And we’ll pick up with more of the test next time.

I'd love to hear from you! So whaddya say?