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by Oren Lavon (6th) 

What is Nostalgia? 

Nostalgia is the feeling you get when you long for the past, a time period, a place. For some it's melancholy, and for others it's bittersweet. Though the latter is very rare. 

And that's the issue.

Nostalgia is typically linked to locations, or people, smells, tastes, etc. and lets be real, it kinda sucks. It makes people think about the past a lot. 

What's Bad About It? 

Let me explain myself. I mean longing for something that happened a while ago that most likely requires time, money, or just can't happen again is a really really bad feeling. And even if you go back to it, your brain highlights the best parts of what happened, so it doesn’t feel as fulfilling. AND EVEN WORSE, this doesn't fix the problem because your brain tells you once again, “Last time was more fun, you weren’t grateful, go back!!!!”

THE AUDACITY!!!!

Why It’s So Bad.

Nostalgia doesn’t let us think ahead. It keeps us thinking of the past, trying to replicate it. It leaves us complaining about the “good ol’ days” instead of making the future better. You can see this effect anywhere, from videos to videogames. Or an example I’ve seen,  “secondhand” I guess you could say. I had these friends, or they were more family friends because we met through our parents. They immigrated from another country (like my parents) and moved back, longing for the experiences they had back in their home country. And the children, to this day, do NOT agree with this decision. Final example the one, the ONLY notorious virus that spread throughout 2020 (that I don’t need to name), also caused another pandemic, a NOSTALGIA pandemic.

This is what triggered me. Before the pandemic it wasn’t as common, but that amplified it because we lost so many things we could do. Fly to another country, go to the local theme park, meet your friends in certain cases.

To End It All Off…

Nostalgia at small amounts is alright, and sometimes is a nice feeling if you have the right mindset. But recently it's gone too far. We need to think ahead. Because when we thought ahead, we achieved so much so quickly. I am nostalgic for something, a lot of things. But what I’m most nostalgic for is when we longed for the future. When we as a species achieved so much. The people who think ahead still achieve so much today, but we need more of them. 

Finally, allow me to end it off with something we’ve all heard a phrase used so commonly, and a phrase that thinks so far ahead,

“Don’t be sad it’s over, be glad it happened”