[stephenwithav]

This happened to me after suffering seizure-induced memory loss last January. It was disheartening, but I'm back to normal now. (For reference, a few weeks post-seizure [mid-February], I thought the 2016 Trump/Clinton election was still 6-8 weeks away.)

Read the basics, implement them, understand their tradeoffs, then build cool side projects that require their use instead of worrying about the best way to implement a Red-Black tree.

The basics are tools you use. The projects you build with them dictate which tools will stay fresh in your mind.

If you don't need the tool, remain aware of them, but don't stress over not remembering the low-level details of something you haven't touched in years.