You are starting to drift off in the backseat of the car while your parents gently talk about their new favorite show. Raindrops race down the car window as the warm streetlights shine through your eyelids every so often. You eventually find sleep, only to be woken up as the car meets that turn just before you get home. You know what I’m talking about. That last turn onto your street that tells the sleepy version of you, “We’re home.”
As you pretend to be asleep, your dad turns off the car, steps out, and lifts you from the seat, carrying you to bed. Just as you start to hear the door unlock, your alarm goes off. You are back in your college apartment, chasing that childhood feeling.
From the smell of an old Justice body mist to visiting your old elementary school, nostalgia can take form in anything. For some, nostalgia hits deep. It is a feeling that comes when you least expect it. And when it does, it can physically hurt your heart. The bittersweet privilege of growing up comes with a cost of missing what you once had. A high school football game, a Nintendo Wii night with your siblings, or even running down the street playing “Ghost in the Graveyard” with all your other 10-year-old neighbors. All these things are my childhood nostalgia that I yearn for often.
However, nostalgia is not a burden; it is a gift. As we grow older and time flies by, nostalgia is a reminder to cherish everything. That child that you remember “sleeping” in the car is still with you, just changed. Having a fashion show as a kid is now putting on your cutest tailgate fit with your best friends. Telling secrets at a sleepover is now a late-night chat with a glass of wine. Your childhood is a significant part of your identity; nostalgia helps remind you of where you came from. Instead of chasing the past, learn to appreciate how it has shaped you into the person you are today and live in the present moment. Keep people in your life who make you feel that youthful spark and genuine love. After all, that younger version of you is still waiting to play with your new friends until the streetlights turn on.