Nostalgia gets me EVERY TIME. I have this really bad habit of wallowing in my self-pity – care to join? It’s not a good thing by any means. My mind just tends to latch onto something and just focus on it and analyse it and mull on it and obsess about it… well, you get my drift. That’s when nostalgia hits. And it comes at the most random times. Like as I’m just sitting here, eating popcorn and watching TV.
So, being the total geek that I am, I looked up the exact definition of the word nostalgia. One definition said “the state of being homesick.” Another said that it is “a longing for the past, often in idealized form.” And they’re both so true.
The things I get nostalgic for are the things or times in my past when I felt completely “at home,” whether it was a place or with a person or in a certain situation. But then I think about it, and wonder if it was really as wonderful as I remember it was. Was that place really so beautiful? Was that person really so wonderful? Was that situation all it was cracked up to be? A lot of times the answer is yes. More often, the answer is probably not so much.
But I really wouldn’t want to change it. I remember the good things about that place, that event – that person. I don’t necessarily want to remember the bad. It taints the beautiful. That’s what I love about nostalgia. Even though it might be painful for a bit, it still is a reminder of a happy time. The hard part is remembering why I’m having that nostalgia. It’s because I don’t have that something any longer, and there is a reason for it. That’s when it gets really hurtful. And that’s when I decide I hate nostalgia. At least until the next time something triggers it.
