Does anybody else think back to when they first moved into their house or discovered a new area or town and they had a completely different perception and version of the place compared to now?

When I moved back in with my parents briefly everything seemed smaller. For example, the bathroom sink was much lower than I remembered. Outside and about town the traffic lanes were more narrow.

But mostly I think it’s just a matter of losing some of the old motor memory. It doesn’t take long to get it back, but until then I have to be more deliberate about how I navigate and get around things.

Yeah, I totally relate to this feeling, and it’s really hard to put into words. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one!

Yeah, I’ve noticed a very hard to describe difference between first impressions of a place and how I come to perceive it over time. I think, for me, it’s a combination of different vantage points (such as the view from an entrance vs. spending a lot of time inside), the unfamiliar becoming familiar and comfortable, and association of a place with experiences, emotions, and people over time. Whatever it is, it creates a very vague and hard to describe change in my perception of a place. It feels different and sort of looks different even if nothing has visibly changed. It’s really just that I see it differently. I’ve never tried to put that into words before, and it’s interesting to think about how these perceptions vary between people.

I got this a lot when I worked retail. I worked in quite a few stores over the years, all of which I’d shop at a lot before becoming an employee. But I’d become aware of the fact that the entire vibe and feeling of a store was different after having worked there for awhile. You might say-well yeah because it becomes your workplace so it feels worse lol, but its the entire vibe of the store that would change for me. I would visualize how I’d shop there before I was an employee and my entire memory would just feel so different.

Reverse culture shock?