Nostalgia is a funny thing. It has the power to remind us of things that we thought were all but forgotten. Hearing a familiar song or smelling a familiar smell can send us straight back to the time and place where we encountered it first. Isn’t that magical? It’s as if we walk through life, marking the trees along our path with little signs; leaving hints and clues that can help take us back to where we began.
I can imagine that nostalgia has a different meaning for everyone and may even be embedded in different things. For me, for example, music packs the biggest punch. As someone who spent their childhood digging through my parents’ CD collection and listening to the radio almost non-stop, music naturally came to define various chapters of my life. An *NSYNC song (I can feel you judging me) could come on at any moment and I would instantly be transported to my childhood living room in California, dramatically flipping my hair around and dancing all over the place like a madwoman. Turn on the ‘Party Rock Anthem‘ and I would find myself at my high school dance, doing that jumping/shuffling/fist-pumping routine that high schoolers call dancing across the linoleum floors of the cafetorium (cafeteria+auditorium). Play any song from Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi album and I would be sitting on the floor with my sister, attempting to hit every intimidating high note. The point is, music is my nostalgia pill; the vehicle that takes me back to the micro-moments that I would have otherwise forgotten. For you, it might be the scent of your favorite home cooked meal, a movie, or even article of clothing.
Courtesy of Giphy
While nostalgia has that magical way of letting us mentally time travel, it also has a way of making us feel lonely; wishing we could go back to simpler times. I find that my craving for nostalgia only grows as the future/adulthood comes closer and closer. Sometimes reminders of the past can be distracting and only hold us back from making new memories. Nostalgia can even take us back to times that we would rather leave in the past; times that we struggled or hurt. Although it is true that nostalgia can sting sometimes, I think that the bitterness we may feel has the power to remind us that we have survived that bitterness before and can face it again if necessary.
So, don’t be afraid to take the nostalgia pill every once in a while; sometimes it’s bitter and sometimes it’s sweet. Take the ones that will keep you going and the ones that will take you back. Take the ones that remind you that you are strong and take the ones that remind you that it’s okay to be vulnerable. Nostalgia, wherever you may find it, just might be the thing that tethers you to the certainty of the past while guiding you into the mystery of the future.
Thanks for reading! :)