Why Do We Feel Nostalgia for Things That Have Already Happened?
Every day, I find myself reminiscing about things that happened, most of them 30 years ago.
I have to be honest, my childhood wasn’t the best financially speaking. Like in many households, only my father worked full-time, while my mother took care of my two brothers and me.
However, I had something that, as you grow up, you realize is worth much more than money: family and friends.
When it comes to my friends, I can say I had the best ones a 12-year-old could imagine.
We used to ride bikes, play Mortal Kombat II, and boy, were we good at that game.
I had a friend who came from a well-off family and enjoyed privileges that many of us didn’t have.
But there he was, sharing his most valuable possessions with us without expecting anything in return.
When we weren’t playing Nintendo, you could find us playing soccer, and when night fell, we would sit down to tell scary stories.
Needless to say, walking home alone after hearing creepy stories wasn’t the best experience, but it was like an addiction to mystery that we teenagers of that time had.
We would sit down to watch TV and enjoy the cookies that my friend’s grandmother offered us every afternoon.
Wearing T-shirts of your favorite superheroes in the 90s wasn’t well regarded, but we always exposed ourselves to being teased.
And I had to risk it because I needed to wear the Marvelmania T-shirt that David had brought me from his trip to Universal Studios in Hollywood.
The problem arises when you start to grow up, and your interests and tastes begin to change with age. And we feel ashamed of being called “kids.”
Growing up happens without you noticing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when you become a bitter adult because you no longer enjoy anything you do, and what you see around you no longer makes sense.
But why do we remember those years with nostalgia?
I think the answer is simpler than it seems. Because back then, you could be whoever you wanted to be, and your friends would support you.
It didn’t matter if you wanted to be the Green Ranger or the Yellow Ranger; it was all part of the game, and the main thing was to have fun and feel like you could save the world.
We remember with nostalgia because we know we were happy.
We remember with nostalgia because now we understand the cost of life, and back then, everything was a game to us.
But, above all, we remember with nostalgia because deep down, we know that all those good moments, those beautiful memories, will never return, and now they only live in our memory.