The Memory I’d Erase

We all carry memories we wish we could forget. Some fade with time, but others stick like shadows no matter how hard we try to outrun them. If I could erase one memory, I know exactly which one it would be.

The Day Everything Changed It was a rainy afternoon in November. I was sixteen, sitting in the backseat of our car, laughing with my brother about some stupid joke. The radio was playing, the wipers were swishing, and everything felt normal. Then, in a split second, everything wasn’t.

A truck skidded through a red light. The crash wasn’t loud like in movies it was a horrible, crunching silence. And then screaming.

My brother walked away with just a scratch. I broke my arm. But my dad… he didn’t make it. at first i felt its was a dream that didn't happen that i will soon wake up from my sleeping but turns out to be real.

The Memory That Won’t Let Go It’s not the accident itself I’d erase. It’s what came after.

The hospital hallway. The smell of antiseptic. My mom’s knees hitting the floor when the doctor said the words. The sound she made like her soul had been ripped out. That’s the memory that haunts me. That moment of her breaking.

I’d give anything to wipe that from my mind.

Why That Memory? It’s not just the pain. It’s what it stole from me:

The good memories of my dad now they’re tangled up with that day.

My mom’s smile it took years before it reached her eyes again.

My own fear of cars, of rain, of losing someone else.

That one moment became a door I can’t unseen. Every happy memory since walks through it.

But Here’s the Thing… As much as I wish I could forget, I’m not sure I would.

That memory? It’s also why:

I never leave a conversation angry.

I tell people I love them way too often, according to my friends.

I notice the way light looks right before it rains.

Pain carves holes in us, but the things that grow in those spaces? They matter too.

What I’ve Learned If you offered me a magic pill to forget, I’d probably hesitate. Not because I want to hurt, but because that hurt shaped me. It made me softer in some places, stronger in others and makes me to discover some things about myself which i could have not discover o a normal ground.

But God, I wish it hadn’t happened.