5 minute read
Nostalgia Yolin Macko Polo
Nostalgia
Personally, this word has always held a lot of value and relevance. Even when I was much younger and didn’t have adulthood to coat the past with a romantic sense of longing, I knew that it was a word that held great emotional significance.
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I remember being seventeen years old in high school and mockingly laughing at the fact that my classmate didn’t know the meaning of the word nostalgia. The word had come up in conversation, and I said it with confidence assuming that everyone obviously knew the meaning. Despite my assumption, she had never heard the word before and this I found astonishing. I was dumbfounded that someone had gone through life without knowledge of a word as important (to me at least) as nostalgia. “You’ve never heard the word nostalgia?” I smirked at her in disbelief. I find that people always assume that they are beyond their years at the current moment in time, and at seventeen, I thought that I was mature and wise. Even when I was a child, I considered myself as a “young adult” so to speak. With that being said, it was not strange that I felt advanced enough to grasp and appreciate the weight of what nostalgia entailed since I was indeed precocious. Little did I know that a decade worth of time would add even greater significance to the already coveted word.
The prospect of feeling nostalgia as a seventeen-year-old is almost laughable. Although it may seem ridiculous, I was feeling the pull of this phenomenon even at the innocent age of fourteen. I remember the overwhelming drag of emotion at the sadness of graduating from elementary school. It marked the end of my childhood era and that meant that I would no longer be sharing a classroom with the same kids that I had grown up with. This sense of appreciation and longing for the past was undeniably riveting. I knew then that life was changing and that the experiences I had known would no longer continue to be.
I realize now at the cusp of thirty that the ability to feel nostalgia is a natural occurrence that transcends time and age. Be it physical or emotional maturity, there is no limit to who can experience genuine nostalgia. It does not discriminate, and one should not judge the authenticity of someone’s longing for the past, no matter how juvenile their age may seem in a numerical sense. As we get older and the years begin to pass with accumulative speed, we tend to long for a time and place that is no longer, and a life that seems simpler. The allure of memories increases the deeper they get pulled into the ether of our minds. The older they become, the more the past envelops memories rendering them
into blurry yet cherished recollections that, at times, vaguely reflect the truth of the past. Oftentimes we romanticize moments once they are no longer in our today. One aspect of the human condition seems to be that most of us are unable to fully live in the present and enjoy experiences as they are occurring. We are either thinking about the past or concerned with what will happen tomorrow. We may spend a great amount of time planning and looking forward to a much needed vacation. Longing and daydreaming about the different scenarios that we will be in once we are in this ideal vacation reality. Consumed with giddy excitement that keeps us up at night when thinking about how fantastic the vacation will be. Naturally, one would expect to be on cloud nine once the vacation arrives, yet many times we find ourselves thinking, this is nice but shouldn’t I be enjoying it more? Then in the blink of an eye, the vacation has ended, and one finds themselves in the same mundane routine as before, wishing that they were back on that sandy beach. A week will pass, or a month and one begins to look back on the time spent on vacation with more fondness. How amazing the sand felt on one’s feet and the comfort experienced as the warm ocean breeze touched the skin. The remembered vacation then becomes a cherished memory put on a pedestal. A symbol for a time of happiness, representing a moment when one was far better off. We fall victim to this narrative all the time. Moments aren’t fully appreciated until they become memories. Our mind’s constant stride to place itself either in the past or future debilitates us from the ability to truly live in the now.
Although the appeal of nostalgia may seem like a contemporary fascination due to the great amount of focus that pop culture has placed on it, it has been present for a long time. The nostalgic theme and aesthetic is both appealing and appreciated, and easily contributes an exciting novelty to visual media. Filters on Instagram and Snapchat that replicate the vintage weathered feel of old cameras have been popular among users. The idea that a nostalgic aesthetic or film brings a sense of novelty may seem like a paradox due to the nature of the definition of nostalgia being a longing for something old or in the past. Although nostalgia pays homage to something that is old and gone, it is most likely novel for those who never experienced the depicted era.
We are always living in the past or present. Worried about the future, regretting our decisions in the past. The weight of regret and anxiety suffocating us in our present moment. Trying to focus on the here and now is a neverending struggle that few people truly master. Although nostalgia evokes beautiful feelings that strike us deep in the heart, at times it can be exhausting. ■
Yolin Macko Polo
Instagram: @yolinnn
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