Tate McRae, the woman you are for creating a song titled “Nostalgia”.
Nostalgia is a concept that involves reminiscing about a time period of your life, knowing that you will never have it back. I will always be the biggest victim of nostalgia.
The other night while laying in bed, I was going through photos from fall 2025. While looking at these photos, I distinctly remember every single detail about them. What was happening during this time in my life, who I surrounded myself with, all the way to what lip gloss I was wearing. I was reminiscing about this part of my life. Not because I wanted to relive it, but solely because I know I would not get that exact moment back again. It would not be a Saturday night in October of my junior year of college, taking pictures with my roommates in our townhouse. I would physically never be able to relive this moment ever again.
I tend to feel this trigger of nostalgia due to a variety of things. It can be a song, a picture, a smell, or even the feeling outside on a given day. It makes you look back at the past events of your life that have brought you to this point. The best part of nostalgia is that it allows you to think back to a time in your life without needing to recreate it.
For example, there are two things that will always trigger the remembrance of sophomore year of college: Sol De Janeiro 59 perfume and the song “Sharpest Tool” by Sabrina Carpenter. Immediately, if I smell that perfume or hear that song, I am transported back to the double dorm room I shared with my best friend/roommate Kayla. I can imagine in my mind us watching New Girl while sipping pumpkin iced coffees on a Saturday morning. That’s the funny thing about nostalgia, though. Everyone who knows me knows that this was one of the worst times in my life that I would never want to relive. However, I still feel some sort of nostalgia towards it. Just because I miss certain parts of it does not mean I miss this time period as a whole.
Since this time in my life, I have transformed into a completely different person. I look different. I have more friends. I have new goals in my life. Just because I feel a sense of nostalgia when remembering this time in my life does not mean I want to relive it. As well, it does not make the current version of myself any less meaningful. That is the truly amazing thing about nostalgia: you do not have to relive it to be able to reminisce on it.