By Li-an de la Cruz-Busto
Choices

THIS week was a horrible one for me because I kept on forgetting things. A few days ago, I forgot where I had placed my set of office keys, the same set of keys for cabinets that had our office supplies.

I was fidgety the moment I realized the keys were not with me. What if we needed some office supplies?

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When I lose or misplace some things, I usually call home and ask my husband (as I leave our house way ahead of him) if he has seen the stuff I am looking for. And for several times, he gets to find those stuff and texts me to ease my worry. But alas, this time I could not call him because he was out of town for his regular field deployment.

What I did instead was to call someone from our office's engineering service and asked that the three locks of the cabinets be replaced with new ones. I heaved a sigh of relief after the replacements.

Imagine my dismay when I went home from work that same day and found my supposedly lost keys. I was searching all over for my keys and yet there it was on the couch; the same couch I looked at. I missed seeing the keys by just a few inches.

Then two days after the incident, I suddenly remembered that I could not find my driver's license which I needed to be photocopied to comply with some documentation requirements. Again, I looked for it everywhere, going through all my things including my purses without success.

It was only after I had photocopied my service identification card that I found with me... inside my wallet. I know I had gone through my wallet but didn't find my license. Sometimes I would like to believe people when they say not to look for the stuff we need because chances are, you would not find it. It's when you're no longer looking that these lost items would surface.

I do not know where my forgetfulness started. Others have told me that I probably got it after giving birth. I don't know. But then I did get more than once dose because I have very high tolerance for anesthesia. Even when I had my tooth extracted I got more than once dose because the anesthesia just doesn't quite work as it should.

For that, I would joke that I have become forgetful even if I still have one child. I tell friends that giving birth again would most likely make me forget my name with more than one injection of epidural in me. Or is this because of my still being a hurried woman?

Forgetfulness stalks me even while I'm barely out of a conversation. There are times when I had to go back to where I was standing while having the conversation to remember what I wanted to say, which I had already forgotten.

Good thing, my writing has been spared from my poor memory. Otherwise, I would not be able to meet myself imposed deadline to this paper which is usually on Fridays of each week.

Since I forget things often, Post It stick-ons have become very, very useful to me, very effective too. I am never complete without these yellow colored stick-ons as they make my life a lot more manageable, particularly with so many things to do. I learned to immediately write on stick-ons things that come to my mind that would need my attention some time soon. Otherwise, I would be back to my old forgetful self.

They say that when one forgets always, it is a sign of old age. Tsk, tsk, what a way to go... I am not even in my 40s yet.

I am not sure if there is a natural cure for being forgetful. I do hope there is. I once read in Kris Aquino's self titled magazine that she takes several vitamins for her nails, hair, eyes, skin, including one for memory. Now I am tempted to sooner or later take one.

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Li-an, a mother of one, is a pilot-officer married to a pilot-officer. She was a reporter of Sun.Star Davao just before she decided to fly.

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(November 30, 2008 issue)
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