ALL PEOPLE have a tendency to ‘remember’ things based on HOW THEY FELT and not upon what actually happened.
I’ll give an example. Your friend is telling you about a run-in with his boss. Your friend says, “I was like... That is such a stupid idea.”
You say, “you said that to him?”
He says, “well... No. I was thinking it though.”
I am now a senior citizen. I vividly remember my experience with a child molester when I was seven, also a rape at knife point when I was 30, an attempted rape by a law student when I was 20, and an attempted rape by a lawyer when I was 28. Sober lawyers know just how far they can go without a technical definition of rape. In each case I remember vivid details of every aspect of the physical happenings as well as exactly how I was feeling. I also remember 9/11 very vividly from a visual perspective, but the feelings I had then have faded, other than the generalized horror. However, my feelings on these sexual assaults can still be summoned up with great clarity, as well as the event details. I think about those events every few years when something in the news reminds me of them. They memory remains clear and the same.