How Pattern Help Us Remember

We like to think of memory as a filing cabinet. A place where facts go and stay, until we need to pull them out. But it’s not that clean. Memory is messy, dynamic, and shaped by something I’ve always been drawn to: patterns.

From playing chess, I’ve learned that we don’t just memorize—we recognize. We store information in patterns. That’s how we remember where we parked, the feel of a friend’s voice, or even what medications to take. But patterns also make us forget.We forget names when they don’t follow familiar cues. We misplace things when our routines shift. We even remember things that never happened—because they fit the pattern we expected.

This idea isn’t just theoretical. It’s central to how we understand cognitive health, especially as people age.

This year, I’ve been researching memory patterns in an independent research project, and building a prototype tool called MindMatch that helps people track and understand how they forget. I’ll also be traveling to Honduras on a medical mission trip to observe how real-world environments shape memory and care.

My goal isn’t to fix forgetting — it’s to understand it. Because in those patterns, there’s something profoundly human.