But most of life’s episodic memories are likely to be clustered between the ages of fifteen and thirty. Called the reminiscence bump, these episodes are what we remember most in life. Why is this? We don’t really know, but most scientists think it’s because so many meaningful firsts are packed into those years—kiss, love, car, college, sex, job, house, marriage, child. During these years, we begin to fill our life’s narrative with purpose and meaning. And again, our brains remember what is meaningful.
