Markie, Joey and Nicole, In Their Own Words

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Markie Pasternak: My birthday is December 11th. What day was it in 2009? I say it was a Friday.

Nicole Donohue: I remember on September 30, 2002, it was a Monday. There was a fire truck at my neighbor's house.

Markie Pasternak: Yeah.

Joey Degrandis: It was April 10, 1994. It was Easter Sunday. He says, I don't want to burst your bubble, Joey, but the Easter Bunny is not real.

Narrator: Markie Pasternak, Joey DeGrandis, and Nicole Donohue are part of a select group. Only about 60 people in the world are documented to have Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory-- or HSAM.

Markie Pasternak: I remember my schedule from every school year since--

Nicole Donohue: Me too.

Markie Pasternak: --forever. I know what I did every day.

Joey Degrandis: We all have memories in our heads. Everything that has ever happened to us is in there somewhere. And even though we can't remember everything that happened to us, we remember more than the average person.

Narrator: One of the most impressive skills people with HSAM an exhibit is the ability to match dates and events.

Markie Pasternak: Wasn't that when Pope Francis became pope?

Nicole Donohue: Oh, the Columbia disaster.

Markie Pasternak: I wasn't around.

Nicole Donohue: I remember I was 12 years old. I was at my grandparents' house.

Joey Degrandis: Amy Winehouse.

Nicole Donohue: Oh. Yes, of course. That was a Wednesday. And for breakfast that day, I had yogurt and a Fiber One square.

Markie Pasternak: I didn't eat breakfast.

[laughter]

Nicole Donohue: People ask me, how do you do that? And I often say, I just know. It just came to me.

Joey Degrandis: In one of my friend groups, I sort of am the scrapbook. In fact, they will always say, when was Mel's birthday or when did Chris and Mel get engaged?

Nicole Donohue: People always me, when is so-and-so's birthday.

Joey Degrandis: Yeah.

Markie Pasternak: It's kind of like if somebody was to sit you down in a room and force you to watch your life on TV.

Joey Degrandis: Mm-hmm.

Nicole Donohue: I sometimes feel like I'm in my own reality show.

Markie Pasternak: Yes.

Nicole Donohue: And I have cameras following me.

Joey Degrandis: I don't know you would think that.

[laughter]

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Nicole Donohue: People always ask me, is there anything bad about having HSAM? I say, every embarrassing moment from middle school and high school stayed with me. You relive it like--

Joey Degrandis: Oh boy.

Nicole Donohue: --it was yesterday. [laughs]

Markie Pasternak: Just as cringeworthy as the first time.

Joey Degrandis: Yes. The element of dwelling on things, I think, is perhaps less prevalent in people that don't have intense memories like we do, and I sort of envy that. I've heard my whole life, Joey, stop dwelling on it. You've got to get over it. You've got to get over it. You've got to let it go. What do you mean, let it go?

Nicole Donohue: Drives me nuts.

Markie Pasternak: Sometimes I'm trying to listen in class. If someone said a date, I'm gone. I'm gone. I'm not listening. I am reliving that memory. So sometimes it can be really an actually big destruction.

Joey Degrandis: Mm-hmm

Narrator: Markie, Joey, and Nicole each believe their ability has taught them a valuable lesson.

Joey Degrandis: We have better access to our memories than the average person. So I think there's a cool implication there, that the idea that our memories are never really gone. They're in there somewhere.

Markie Pasternak: The power of HSAM is we all want to make every day a day we want to remember for the rest of our lives.

Nicole Donohue: We're going to be remembering every day. You got to try to make it the best you possibly can.

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