<p>It's the night before the test, and this is my last essay that I'm writing tonight~! The prompt is from the Sept 2013 practice/prep booklet:</p>
<p>Assignment: Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present? </p>
<p>It is only through memory and learning do people build character, become more skilled, and make better decisions. However, despite memory's critical role in human learning, it is not uncommon to see a tragic flaw with a person due to some sort of mental trauma from their past. Memory is a double-edged sword--it can serve as the foundation for learning and future success, or it can stunt a person's emotional and mental growth. Memory can be the killer of ambition and the bane of success if a person cannot deal with a troubled past.</p>
<p>I observed the powerful, detrimental effects of memory on my own mother. Growing up, I began to quickly understand that she could not let go of her own past. Between a cold, distant father, a loving, but deceased mother, a disdainful brother, and low achievement in school, she found herself suffering and assumed the role of a victim. Scarred by past memories, she was unable to muster any sort of will or strength to fix her situation, and so only got worse. Throughout the fifteen years of her marriage, major, negative events, such as birthing a heavily-disabled child and dealing with a bickering, short-fused husband, led to her gradual, yet sure atrophy of her mental and emotional state. Although there were many other factors that affected her, my mother eventually developed psychosis, abandoned my family, and simply disappeared.</p>
<p>My mother's inability to deal with her past and resolve critical problems led to her failure of surrendering to insanity in the present. Whether or not she is to blame for it is not my concern: the fact is that the power of negative memories completely destroyed her potential to be a successful, stable person. It ravaged her. Memory stole my mother away from me, and, instead, left me with an empty shell of what could have been.</p>