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Now that I have gone over the different aspects of the past/ present, I am able to understand the impact that each one has on the other. Every single day, we make new memories, good and bad, and those are the ones that shape us into the person that we are today. I encourage you to make as many memorable experiences that you can so that you are able to find who you truly are and so that you can mold yourself into the person that you want to be.

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Along with 9/11, another occasion that stood out the most was the Sandy Hook Shooting in Connecticut. The fact that children, grades 1st through 5th, were involved in a mass shooting resulting in the death of 28 people, including 20 children. I had an emotional connection with this event because this was very hard to take in since I am still a child and knowing that anything can happen at any moment is very traumatizing to think about. “I just can’t cope with it right now,” Hanson said through tears. “She was my daughter, and a beautiful girl and I loved her. I just can’t make any more comments than that right now.” (Vogel) This is an example of a parent who will never forget the death of their child because they were put on this earth to be raised by her parent. She must have been devastated when she found out her daughter was shot and killed by a random gun man. Today, the parent is probably very sad because they cannot live with themselves knowing that they lost their child in a mass murder.

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Along with personal events that influence the present, there are other events that are cultural that will remain a daily memory historically for everyone. One main event that has everyone in awe, is 9/11. This event took place on September 11, 2001 and is still remembered to this day. People have paid their memories to this tragic event such as Reverend Billy who said, "“On that impossible day when the skyline of New York City collapsed on its southern tip — I watched from a rooftop across the East River — we entered an unexpectedly peaceful eye of the storm. We all fell toward the terrible scene. We fell through tunnels, over bridges. We were cultural first responders and many of us ricocheted over to a park called Union Square, the site of so much freedom fighting in the history of the United States. There, thousands gathered in candle-light vigils on the first nights after 9/11…” (Billy) These people vividly remember what happened on this day which shows that the past has a avery large influence on the present day.

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When I think of the past, i think of the memories that I made when i was a child and how they shaped me into the person I am today. I can connect to a past experience because in 2005, I remember when I got my first dog. I will never forget the day that we got our dog because to this day, I know that having a dog requires a lot of responsibility and now, I see myself as being a responsible teenager due to the help of owning a dog.

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When you think of the past, do you think of what just happened, what happened last year, or what happened during your childhood? There is never really an answer to what the past really is, it is what you memories make out of it. William Faulkner believed that there was more than just one reason for the past and the present in his quote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." (Faulkner) In his quote, he is showing that the past will always have an influence on how the present will be and the outcome of the future. In order to fully understand what the difference between the past and the present is, we need to evaluate it through our personal experiences and cultural events.