You're sitting at your desk, scrolling through your social media accounts, and your eyes stop at an image of the well-known Bubbles ice cream, from the Mister Softee truck, that everyone remembers.
You are suddenly transported to your middle school years, the feeling of asking your parents to buy you that same ice cream; a smaller you with bright eyes and a toothy smile. The bubblegum eyes that were the best part that you just had to save for last. The past is a distinct smell that is indescribable and there are goosebumps traveling down your arm as you're reminded of the good ol' times.
We are the generation of nostalgia. Every generation has sentimentality for the past, but the late 1990s and early 2000s kids feel the distorted memories in their souls every single day. There is something bittersweet about remembering what our lives used to be and feeling the loss of being a child, the longing to reach and almost grasp the elusive version of who we used to be. It's like we're Tom chasing Jerry. We're always so close to grasping at it, but it manages to slip from our fingertips time and time again.
Everyone is always talking about the 90s cartoon that everyone watched as kids, or the movies that were amazing and always brought a sense of happiness. Everyone is always talking about pillow forts and hide and seek, games that took over half of our days. We are trying to return to the feeling of "home" we get by returning to our old shows and movies, or returning to our old memories.
We're obsessed with the past because our minds are biased. They only want to recall the happy memories, the ones that we can always return to on a rainy day. It's a way of not focusing on the present, or the future, but wishing for simpler times. We're obsessed with the past because we can never return as adults. Our memories are so distorted from years and years of distance that there is nothing else we could do but make it our home.
Nostalgia is beautiful. Watery eyes and soft wistful smiles recalling the pleasure of being a child in the early 2000s and the amazing sentimentality of teddy bears and ice cream.
Nostalgia is a treasure that all of us splurge in from time to time. It is not a bad thing to reminisce about days when you had all the time in the world and spent it playing with your imagination; but once you try to remember every distinct emotion, don't be disappointed when your reality catches up with your idealized memories. Sometimes it is better to leave the past in the past and focus on making your future just as beautiful.
