How does our perception of ourselves change?

[hobbvin82]

All that you have ever been, and ever will be, will always be.

But that said...  Even within a single lifespan, our memories "blend together."  Think back to your childhood, say, third grade.  With the exception of really important days where something truly remarkable happened like birthdays or holidays, haven't they already blended together?  Isn't "Third Grade Memories" more of a collage, or montage, rather than a sequential series of events you remember explicitly moment-by-moment?

So the blending isn't something to be concerned about, if I am correct in reading a bit of concern in your post.  It's an absolutely natural part of existence.  The individual memories are there, if we truly want to access them, but in the grand scheme it's the repeating structures that truly matter.  Those are the patterns that shape our lives.  And those are what form the true foundations of your personality, or your 'true self', as it's typically thought.

This makes sense. I guess my worry is concerning losing who I perceive myself to be right now. I am awake now, and can remember what it was like to be asleep. It makes me kind of sad to think that this life I have lived will basically be wiped away after this incarnation is done, filed into the memory bank of my consciousness.

I know this is an emotional response, but I can't help it. I don't want to go to sleep again, having to wake myself back up in another life. It just seems tragic, and painful.