Back when I was in high school, I used to walk from the bus stop to the school every morning. There was a little shortcut I would always take, through a parking lot of a bank close to the bus stop, and then into the street behind that parking lot which lead to the bigger street where the school was. It was faster than walking around the whole building and I took that path every school day for seven years, and I'm not the only one who did.

Some years back I visited my old home town again and thought I'd take a stroll to my old high school to see how it has changed. So I got off the bus, but there was no access to the parking lot anymore from the front. Just a big building.

Oh, I thought, they closed off the shortcut. Sucks for people who now have to take the longer route, and the bank employees also have to drive in from the back. So I walked around, and when I reached the street where my old school is, the other entrance to the street was also blocked by a house. I felt weird now. Why would they close off a street like that? Had they turned it into a cul-de-sac? I walked around the whole block the other end but there was also no street, just another building.

At this point I was really freaked out. Did I remember this so wrong? I was one hundred percent sure that I've walked through this street that apparently didn't exist anymore for may years, I didn't even have to think about the way. I pulled out my phone and checked Google Maps, and yes, as you might have guessed, no street.

I asked some random dude who was walking around if there ever was a street through this block of houses, and he said he couldn't remember it but there was some big construction going on in the city center shortly after I left (the school was basically downtown central), however not in that exact area. I checked Google Maps again, this time the satellite images, and it showed no trace of a street or anything, just parking spots and some garages behind those houses. The parking lot is still there with an access from the side which could or could not have been there back then, I don't remember, but it certainly didn't look anything like I remember.

I immediately called my grandma who'd lived in that city for over 60 years and asked her about it, but she also said that she can't remember there ever being a street behind that bank building, but admitted she wasn't too sure about it.

That freaked me out. How could my memory be so wrong?

TL;DR: Apparently I walked to school for seven years through a street that has never existed.