Synesthesia isn't something many people have heard of, and until the age of 14 I hadn't heard of it either, even though it has been affecting the vast majority of my thought processes my entire life.
Synesthesia is the communication of two regions of the brain that do not typically communicate, creating involuntary sensory links that would not otherwise be present in the average human brain. In my case, I associate all letters, words, numbers, names and people with a colour. So for example, for me Monday is pink and Tuesday is orange - it always has been and it always will be. And for the musician Lorde, weekends are brown (whereas for me, they're blue). Other forms of synesthesia include associations between smell and colour as well as taste and sound, but the list of associations goes on. Now, whenever I explain that I have synesthesia the conversation always results in me being asked to allocate someone a colour which is always entertaining.
I distinctly remember the day I found out what synesthesia was - I was sat in the kitchen with my dad when I randomly asked him what colour his 'Tuesday' was. He was baffled by what I had asked him and long story short, we did some quick Google searches and discovered that I am amongst the approximated 4% of the world population that has synesthesia.
There has arguably been a link established between creatively-minded people and synesthesia. Many famous musicians have the condition including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Duke Ellington Charlie XCX, Billy Joel and Lorde and many have vocalised about how this has affected their careers and the way they perceive music specifically.
I often wonder if the reason I've been so driven towards working in the fashion industry for most of my life was initially because of my relationship with colour. With fashion being so visual and colour being a crucial part of the industry, perhaps I gravitated towards this career path because of the way my brain is wired.
In terms of my everyday life, I don't really think about my synesthesia because I've never experienced life without it, but it still affects the way I perceive every word, letter, etc whether I realise it or not. I have always found that it's really helped me with my memory as associating certain things with a colour means I am able to remember it much more easily with not a lot of thought. In school I always did well in spelling tests and number association tasks as well as remembering general facts for an abnormally long period of time - so academically it really has favoured me which is something I'm grateful for. I've always been drawn to the more creative and essay based subjects in school and the degree that I'm studying for now is proof of that and I do believe this has something to do with my synesthesia. It can sometimes create confusion though. For example, if the number '8' was written down in pink that would completely throw me off as in my head it's green and that's not up for dispute when it comes to the way I think about this number.
I'm interested to see how my synesthesia will continue to affect me as I get older, specifically in regards to my hopeful career in fashion. I can't imagine my life without synesthesia and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's something I thought I would share as it's not commonly discussed but most people tend to be fascinated when they first hear about it.
Mais xx
