Which is also why I am more confident on my considered oldest retained memory being real, as it was a rather ordinary event that nobody else remembered. Other "memories" I have from when around 3 I don't really trust as they have been replayed by others too many times.

Of course, maybe I just remember the memory me replaying the memory to myself. Is there a meaningful difference even? Maybe all our memories after some time become blended with our re-narrating them and re-interpreting them.

Every memory is a "story" you re-tell yourself each time you "remember" it.

There's no meaningful difference on how you experience it as "real" even if its just a "re-enaction" of such reality, but it might help explain why so many humans remember things from their past slightly differently than they actually happened.

This can also serve as a trauma-recovery mechanism, allowing one to not remember stuff too traumatizing etc, the brain blocks it out or rewrites it as a dream, or whatever