If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that my head was filled with useless information following me blurting out some random fact vaguely related to the conversation, I wouldn’t be applying for financial aid for college, if you know what I mean. Yet, my brain’s tendencies to remember even the smallest of details is what demonstrates its uniqueness. 

For whatever reason, I have an unusual memory unlike that of my friends and family. For example, I can list every last theme and title of each of Survivor’s 40 seasons along with the winner from that season. The same goes for American Idol; I don’t know anyone else who could tell you off the top of their head that Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken by the closest voting margin in American Idol history back in season 2 in 2003 (even after his stunning performance of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”). However, the information constantly swirling through my mind doesn’t just end with reality TV show trivia. I’ve memorized the lyrics, artists, and titles of songs from the 1960s to modern day, genres of all kinds. From Elton John to Metallica to the musical soundtrack of “Dear Evan Hansen,” the lyrics and melodies to all these songs are forever carved into my brain, eager to be retrieved any time my family or friends decide to play a “Guess that Song” challenge. Quotes from “The Office,” the type of cleats my teammates wear to soccer practice, the locations of the world’s countries on a map, the U.S. state capitals: pretty much any piece of trivial information one could have stored in their brain is lodged in mine. Many say that I am clogging my brain with junk information and that I could, instead, be filling it with knowledge of chemistry and precalculus and Shakespeare. I find people who speak this way ignorant, because I believe that there is no limit to the amount one person can learn. Though the capacity of the human brain is finite, the amount one person learn in a lifetime could never reach the limit of the human brain. 

This fact is one that I try to remember when immersing myself into the multitude of AP and honors classes I challenge myself with. With the help of my perfectionistic personality, I am able to create projects, generate ideas, and spit out information not just because I memorized the definition of cognitive dissonance for one test, but because I thoroughly understand the concept and jammed it into the bottomless information box in my brain labeled “Psychology.” I find my success in these classes by never fretting over whether I will remember the concepts and vocabulary I need for the exams: I know that my brain is capable of absorbing and retaining any information I fuel it with. Besides, I could explain to you the plot of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, sketch the graph cosine equation in precalculus, and demonstrate how to use a spectrometer to determine the molarity of a solution in chemistry all while naming every castaway from Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. 

So yes, my brain is filled with a lot of information that will be of no use to me independent of impressing others with my vast knowledge of reality TV show winners or rapping the entirety of Eminem’s “Rap God,” but I am so ready and eager to test the limits of my brain’s capacity and dive into the endless information my future holds for me wherever I am fortunate enough to end up.