Flooded with Nostalgia

I've seen much discussion on my feed lately of "Gen Z's overwhelming Nostalgia." Our tendency to reminisce on everything "unimportant" -- a random place, an insignificant time, and even the past we may never have experienced. We often make Pinterest boards and edits of the 70s, 90s and every other time we didn't live, specifically the times before social media and smart phones. As I feel this storyline picking up more and more, I feel a definite truth in it.

I think of every time I felt a seat warmer in a car and immediately reminisce about my childhood as a competitive swimmer, running through the freezing December air to the seat my mom had warmed for me, wrapped in my towel and falling asleep to Christmas music. Every time I had a slice of Costco pizza, I remember the Fridays after-school when my mom would bring my siblings and me to roam the aisles of Costco all afternoon, eventually picking up dinner for Pizza Movie Night on the way home.

I think of my move from Texas to Pennsylvania, and how my Dad insisted on stopping at every hospital my siblings and I were born in and every house we were taken home to. I remember wandering around those neighborhoods I barely remember, feeling like a part of me was still there.

"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days, before you actually left them." -Andy Bernard

My memories are somewhere in the noise of graphs, polls, and data. My life as a military kid is associating the random bits of my every day life to a place: pizza to North Carolina or trail-walks to Georgia. These recollections seem completely random at first, as if they're ordinary moments without meaning. But when I think of each of these memories, I remember a specific feeling. It might (somewhat fittingly) sound simple, but my most nostalgic moments stem from my brain being completely content. All of these moments, simple or not, were completely undistracted, unaffected by the noise we live with today.

Today, many of us may not remember the last time we went outside without our phone in our pocket, the last beautiful sunset we saw without capturing it on our cameras, or the last quiet time we had without wanting to put in AirPods. We wouldn't anymore wander through aisles aimlessly or go down a path we didn't have a map to.

In today's moments, we lose the thing we idolize most about times past: simplicity. The life we live today can feel crammed with noise, an endless feed of conflicting opinions, 60 second videos, and two minute songs. And in an attempt to escape this, we listen to older songs and look through old photographs, desperately missing everything we "can't get back." But in reality, all we have to do is unplug.

“The hope that good old days will come back never goes away. They come back sometimes - but then we are so focused on good old days that we fail to recognize good present days.” -Shon Mehta

The life we miss from our childhood was filled with boredom, with quiet times and unscheduled days that felt like they'd never end. While it's true that we can't get those days back, we also forget the power we have to feel that way again. And it starts with the exact thing we try desperately to avoid: boredom.

Often, nowadays, we fear silence. Think about how awkward it may seem to even walk around a public space alone if you aren't wearing earbuds or looking at a screen, or how quickly we pull out our phones while waiting for something. It's so normalized to spend every second consuming media that we don't realize how much it consumes us; but in reality, boredom and silence are not only natural, but it is necessary for our brains.

"74 percent of Americans feel uneasy leaving their phones at home, 71 percent check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up, and 47 percent consider themselves 'addicted' to their phones." -Psychology Today

To enjoy the simple moments, we must allow them to happen. We must embrace the quiet of life, not filling it with media or music, but instead walking outside and making an effort to stay completely in the moment. We must hang out with friends and try new things without posting it to our stories for everyone else to see.

So while I reminisce about the times from my childhood and the "magic" that seemed to surround it, I'm also aware of the moments I'm losing now. These floods of nostalgia that really telling me to be more present. I probably didn't realize how significant falling asleep in the car at ten years old would be to me, because I was just living my life.

Heading into the new year, I'm setting one goal that I hope sticks: to be more present. As sang in one of my most favorite songs, don't let the good life pass you by.

"Did you ever see the funny side of losin'? Did you ever sit right down and have a cry? Did you ever take the time to help a neighbor? Just don't let the good life pass you by" -Cass Elliot