Nostalgia

We, human beings, have different life stages. Some would classify the stages according to age like infancy, childhood, and adulthood. It is a static classification of how we grow and develop. On the other hand, I can also classify our life stages according to time like the past, present, and future. It is a dynamic classification, similar to a lever with a moving fulcrum. With the past on the left side and the future on the right, we move our fulcrum (present) to the right, as we go along our daily lives. Thus, our lives consist of memories of the past, experiences of the present, and expectations of the future. Every tick of the clock, expectations turn into experiences, and experiences turn into memories. Sometimes, however, we try to pull the fulcrum to the left and try to experience again our past memories.


This is the essence of nostalgia. It is the yearning of going back to a certain time or experience that we loved and cherished. Most of the time, it is a positive feeling that is stimulated by an object or happening in the past. We feel nostalgic whenever we visit our high school or college university after a long period of absence. We feel nostalgic if we hear the opening song of a popular anime that we used to watch.

Whenever this feeling touches us, we always say, "I miss my childhood days," or "I hope I could go back in time to relive this experience." The feeling of nostalgia is so strong that it leaves a deep feeling of longing. The danger of this is when we force to pull the fulcrum back to the past, and disrupt its normal progression into the future. This can happen when our past seems to be better than the present or the expected future. However, no matter what we do to stop the flow of time, the fulcrum of the present will continue to uncover our future, and create more memories.

Thus, if the present and the future looks bleak, our goal is to make them brighter. We cannot control the progression of time, but we have partial control of our present and future through the choices that we make. The feeling of nostalgia is not there to stop us from progressing in our life stage. Nostalgia is there to help us remember our colorful past, and inspire us to create more of them.