2026-07-07
Ahh nostalgia. The bittersweet longing for good times and enjoyable places past.
Sometimes it even manifests as a want to revisit places you've never been to or experienced! As I've gotten older, I've become more aware of nostalgia for times past beginning to creep into my every day life. The memories of Christmas mornings past opening Super Nintendo games. The memories of fiddling around with our first computer to figure out how it works and to get games to play on it (mostly Sim City 2000.) Those days in high school just hanging out with friends during lunch or between classes, bs'ing with each other and causing trouble (not too much, really!) Those summer days that seemed to go on forever.
The issue with nostalgia is that while it feels good to recall the pleasantries of the past, if given too much space in your mind, it can easily take over. You may begin to surround yourself with things past in an attempt to relive those moments or to immerse yourself in the world you had so many years ago.
Nostalgia is, I believe, the primary driver behind the infamous "midlife crisis" so many people around my age go through. They buy cars they wanted but couldn't afford in high school, they buy the toys, or gaming systems and games, or other things they wanted but couldn't afford. Perhaps they will contact friends on Facebook with whom they haven't spoken in 20 years. Some even go so far as to purchase their childhood home, hoping that when they walk through that front door their life will magically return to what it was decades ago. I believe these are all attempts to help them relive or recapture some of their bygone youth.
"To dwell on the past is to steal from the future." Nostalgia isn't necessarily a self-destructive phenomenon (though it can be a costly one.) It only becomes a problem when, like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, you let it prevent you from not only being in the present, but shaping your future. The aforementioned quote is one I replay to myself often whenever I feel nostalgia beginning to cause me to dwell too much on the past, or to make decisions based on that nostalgia (like starting a Super Nintendo game collection or buying that 1994 Camaro Z28.) If you dwell on the past too much, you let the past dictate your actions and you attempt to shape your present and your future to be like your past instead of enjoying what you have now, or changing your life to have what you really need or want.
Nostalgia can be a nice place to visit. A reminder of who you are and where you came from. Remembering old friendships, family, and places, can be subtley sweet. But, like a drug, if taken too much it can be addicting and take over your mind and influence your behavior. It can ultimately make you unhappy when that new car, or that old game you used to love, just isn't the same as you remember it being. When old places you visit have been changed in a way you don't agree with, or don't even exist at all anymore. One can visit nostalgia, but to attempt to manifest that nostalgia into the real world, where change is happening constantly, is asking for disappointment. It's expecting your childhood memories to remain in stasis in reality forever, and that is simply not going to happen in most cases.
So, the next time you begin to dwell on nostalgia, and you feel like you're going to make decisions based on that nostalgia knowing those decisions may not be the best, remember this quote: "To dwell on the past is to steal from the future."
