Collective false memories, commonly referred to as the Mandela Effect, occur when large groups of people misremember historical events or pop culture phenomena—one example being the belief that in Star Wars, Darth Vader says “Luke, I am your father,” when he really just says “I am your father.” Shockingly, an instance of the eerie Mandela Effect has just touched your own life: It appears that hundreds of people remember you as a complete loser in high school.
How strange! It’s absolutely mind-blowing the way false memories like this one can gain traction.
Based on recent conversations circling among members of your graduating class, it appears that many of your former schoolmates are under the mistaken impression that you were one of the biggest dorks in your entire high school. Dozens of your peers have testified that they remember seeing you sprinting full-speed through the school hallways between classes like a “total freak,” which seems to be an odd slip of memory, since all you did was walk a little quicker than the average slowpoke in order to get to class early and snag the best seat in the room. And despite the fact that it was undeniably cool how you petitioned the school to start a French club sophomore year so you could eat escargot every day at lunch, it seems that people have an inexplicable recollection of your French Club as “off-putting,” and “responsible for the disgusting stench in the cafeteria.”
One possible explanation for the Mandela Effect taking place among your high school classmates is that when people recall memories of you, it brings up memories of other, lamer students, like the loner band geeks who never even went on a date—and those memories are then incorrectly confused with memories of you, who actually did go on three dates, but most people didn’t hear about them because they were with someone you knew from outside school. With that definition in mind, it makes sense how someone from your high school might mistake you for a weird loner who didn’t go to any of the football games, even though you know for a fact that you went to all of them because you had to help your mom work the concession stand.
The Mandela Effect is seriously such a wild phenomenon! While it’s definitely not accurate that people think you were some sort of weirdo who wore a bowling team letterman jacket to school every single day, at least you know the truth—that the jacket actually fit you really well and you only wore it on match days. Fortunately, your ten year reunion is right around the corner, so you’ll be able to set the record straight about how cool you actually were very soon. The Mandela Effect may be powerful, but the truth is more powerful still!
