TASK DEFINITION: Read the given story and classify it as 'imagined', 'recalled', or 'retold'. If a story is imagined, the person who wrote the story is making it up, pretending they experienced it. If a story is recalled, the person who wrote the story really experienced it and is recalling it from memory. If a story is retold, it is a real memory like the 'recalled' stories, but written down much later after previously writing a 'recalled' story about the same events. So, recalled stories and retold stories will be fairly similar, in that they both were real experiences for the writer. Imagined stories have a more linear flow and contain more commonsense knowledge, whereas recalled stories are less connected and contain more specific concrete events. Additionally, higher levels of self reference are found in imagined stories. Between recalled and retold stories, retold stories flow significantly more linearly than recalled stories, and retold stories are significantly higher in scores for cognitive processes and positive tone.
PROBLEM: I almost killed someone last month. I was on the phone, helping a patient, and also filling prescriptions as fast as I could. The pharmacist in charge (PIC) was picking her nose while telling me to go faster, faster, faster. I felt so angry that she wouldn't even pick up the phone and put someone on hold while us techs were working at such dangerous paces. And then it happened. A customer asked me to count their pills again so they knew they were receiving the right amount. I understood why, we were visibly overworked and understaffed, but was also very irritated at having yet another task added to my plate. I grabbed the vial, dumped it out, and then my blood ran cold. The PIC stopped digging in her nose and looked down at the same time I did--she lead by micromanaging us right down to how many times a day we urinated, and she started whisper yelling at me. There was a very dangerous drug mixed in with the blood pressure pills. How it happened, who initially put the wrong drug in the wrong bottle, who verified it at the final check, it didn't matter. This was not a failure of the multi-step process or the team in her eyes. No, the fault was mine and mine alone. My bladder was strained, my feet hurt, and I could not safely multitask another day. I went home and thought about it, obsessed over it, dreamed about it. I showed up for work the next day and worried over every patient. I worried that the other techs were not able to work safely either, that the other pharmacists were so worried about whether patients were coming in for vaccinations to meet a goal that I was actually going to kill someone next time. I worried that someone was sitting down to take the wrong medicine right that moment and there was nothing I could do. The next day was my day off and I felt dread, crippling dread. And then I woke up at 3 in the morning and realized I didn't have to go in the next day. I didn't have to go back ever again. So without warning, without thought I quit. Just like that. My family is broke but I didn't kill someone that day.

SOLUTION: recalled

PROBLEM: A little over a month ago, I reached out to a girl that I had met online last December. At that time, we had chatted for a while and then I had gone to visit her in New York City, where she was from, but a few weeks later, the brief beginning to a possible romance ended. I thought about her a lot over the next several months, and finally, about 5 months later, I contacted her again. I didn't know if she would respond, but to my delight, she did. However, emotions and feelings still had to be sorted out and ultimately we took a month or so break from communication again. It was then, in June, while about to take a week-long vacation to the beach with my family -- the travel route of which would take my by the town where she lived while going to school -- that we reconnected and planned to meet up on my way back from the beach. We decided to go to a theme park close by, one that I hadn't been to since I was probably in high school. All week I was excited and a bit nervous. Would this simply be two friends hanging out, or would it be something more? When I finally met up with her, things were a bit awkward at first; it had been a long time since we had seen each other and I was trying to feel out how to act. However, the next day when we went to the park, things were very fun and the conversation between us flowed naturally and easily. We even flirted and made some physical contact. We spent a long day at the park and rode all sorts of rides, and in the time we spend walking around and waiting in line, we talked a lot about each other and grew closer. At the end of the day, we went to her place -- both of us were pretty exhausted. While we were there, we talked intensely about the situation between us and really made a heart-to-heart connection. I told her I had wanted to kiss her all day but wasn't sure if I should. She responded that she had been waiting for me to do so. We sealed the day with a kiss, and since then we've been seeing each other almost every week. I think back to that day a lot as the start of something wonderful.

SOLUTION: recalled

PROBLEM: We packed all 5 of us, plus our two dogs, into the truck. We threw our luggage and bikes into the bed of the truck, and hit the road. The trip was long, but fairly uneventful. About 12 hours later, we arrived at the lake house. Although the weather wasn't the best the whole time, we had a ton of fun. The rainy or cold days, we sat around the cabin and read books and put together puzzles. On the sunny and warm days, the kids spend the whole day in the lake. We particularly enjoyed riding the jet-ski, and the younger children had a blast getting to drive it for the first time. We took them out on trails on 4-wheelers, and as always, they loved it. We also took the truck to gather firewood, but damaged the tailgate in the process! It was pretty entertaining when our youngest got stuck on the wrong side of the fence at the border crossing, but that was quickly resolved. After a week, we packed everything back up, and began the long trek back home. We chose to make the return trip at night, in order to minimize stops. After driving all night, I was EXHAUSTED when we arrived home at 4am! We're all counting down the weeks until we go again!

SOLUTION:
retold