Do we remember things better than they were?

I just found an old stick of deodorant. It was my college deodorant. It took my back to those days. Automatically a feeling rushed over me. I know smell is very powerful. Were those days really that great, or is my mind playing a trick on me?Do we remember things better than they were?
I can't say, everyone is different in the way they form views on things. I know I tend to polarize things a little bit; things I liked I will remember as better than they were and things I don't I will probably remember to be worse.
Usually we don't even know what they were and the memories will change as our mind does. Life is 90% hallucination anyway. Our brains can't process all the information they receive so most of it is a feedback loop. Yes it is a trick, smells trigger emotions as well as memories. Why not meditate on it, only you can answer this question.Do we remember things better than they were?
It's hard to decipher human emotions and memories however you should take note that the you now is remembering your past with fondness similar to that of an older sibling watching a mini version of yourself. You can't truly understand and feel the same way as before because at that time you were living as someone else. You were perhaps at a down in yourlife however your self now would think that the situation wasn't as depressing and that you could've easily gotten over it. But since you are not experiencing those feelings according you your situation now you can't quite sympathize and thus everything in your past will always be viewed with a sense is nostalgia, regret, happiness, fondness or acceptance. It's like viewing beautff photo if you will, the photo could evoke emotions signing you but those emotions aren't of the subject, the photo let think of interpretation but it would never be quite as correct as what the subject is truly experiencing at the exact moment. You can appreciate and love the without having any real understanding of the subject and without altering of the photo.
I believe we do! Things like my childhood birthdays always seem better than they really were.Do we remember things better than they were?
Yes, the mind does tend to edit out most of the bad times. I'm sure you had a lot of good times, which are worth remembering, but the disorientation, jerks you ran across across, snobby girls, and even smaller events like nausea or stubbing your toe didn't rush to the front of your memory view when you you smelled that deodorant.