Nostalgia - The Beauty of the Past

Do you often find yourself listening to old music more? Watching older movies that maybe your parents have talked about? Maybe even media isn’t something you resonate with, rather, you keep longing for the days when you were younger. Why is it that we have a sense of yearning for the old days? Were they really as good as in our memories? Let’s dive deeper into the unending rabbit hole of nostalgia!

Nostalgia, scientifically, is a sense of longing for the past, whether it is for a place, personal experience. The word itself has its roots from the words “homecoming”, and “pain”. But in my opinion, the meaning of what nostalgia is, can differ from person to person, which is something that sets this feeling apart from the others. Although the broad definition does exist, the feeling is rather built from our unique personal experiences. Reminiscing connects us strongly, in ways where we don’t understand, and it’s rather, unexplainable. We love to look back because it makes us reflect, what made us the person who we are today.

There are several reasons why we keep on looking back. One of the main reasons is because we think of simpler times, even if those times may have been hard to us in reality, but our minds have the capacity to filter out the filth from hardships, only focusing on the good side, highlighting the positive aspect. Nostalgia radiates the most during our most important phases of our lives, it can be during childhood, high-school, college, like mentioned earlier, even if those phases of our lives where not the best, we always can pinpoint the small moments that mattered, that made us happy for a brief amount of time.

Pop culture often embraces this feeling, we already are seeing many songs trying to sound like they were released in the 1990s, movies being set in certain time periods, video games etc. When we are constantly surrounded by romanticizing the past, it’s not hard for our taste to be dictated and shaped by it also. Sometimes, nostalgia also helps us cope with the present day, the way our lives may be going off the rails and the amount of problems we may be having, as a way to sweep them under the rug and focus on the good old days.

Although, sometimes taking a step back and reminiscing about a certain memory you had with your friend or someone dear to you, is totally fine, but, dwelling too much about the way things were in high school, the past days, prevents us from growing as a person, it’s easy to get lost in the bubble of the past, when it provides you the comfort the present is lacking. Focusing too much on the past, makes us forget to embrace the future, to appreciate the present day. Remember, we don’t walk towards the past, if you revisit the same book, you appreciate the details, but do not neglect the beauty of other books that offer you an ocean of adventures. Create new memories, so you’ll have more things to be nostalgic about later!