Earlier in the week I felt a familiar emotion. Not necessarily positive or negative, but it was something I knew very well. I was driving home from my old high school on a familiar road in the dark of night, using the car that I've come to treat as an extension of my body. I was listening to an older playlist of songs, cringing at the edgy, emotional mess that I was (and arguably, still am.) I felt nostalgic. As I parked in my driveway I smirked and laughed at myself. I thought, "Really, Miguel? You've left that place a long time ago, and over half of your years there were spent miserable. Why do you miss it?"

By the end of writing this I'm sure I'll find the answer.

Nostalgia. It's such an interesting... emotion. A subtype of melancholy, nostalgia ironically lifts one's mood. We'll see a place that we spent a lot of time in, or smell a scent from our duration as a 5-year-old, and suddenly memories come flooding back, more good than bad in my experience. It's an interesting word as well, being a combination of the Greek words for "homecoming" and "pain." Strange, how an emotion partially represented by "pain" can lift the spirit. What's stranger still is how the memories that come to mind are usually positive in nature. When you visit your elementary school classrooms, you giggle internally and remember the awkward steps you took as a youth, raising your hand excitedly when you knew the answer and hoping to impress your teacher. When you encounter a particular item, you grasp it in your hand tenderly, the edges and curves and angles still imprinted on your fingertips. You'll flash back to the first day you got it, or the day that it began to have meaning to you. Perhaps a tear or two will fall, snapping you back to reality as you fumble to wipe your cheek.

Nostalgia is an emotion that reminds us of who we once were, and what we once felt. An unintended comparison between the past and the present, one that rips reason and logic right out of the equation and is fueled by raw, primal emotion. It's a strong yet subtle feeling, and it's by far one of the most bittersweet you can experience. Perhaps now I've found the answer to my question. "Why do you miss it?" I ask myself. Well, Miguel from 2 hours ago, I say this: I miss it because it was a simpler time.

In high school, the biggest overarching issues were getting into college and being socially accepted. There was no stress of finding a job, or getting a degree. There was no need to worry about how much money you had going to classes, or whether or not you'd return to school the next year. There was no stress of having to find a place to live and whether or not your roommates would be tolerable. Overall life was just comparably easier.

I understand full well that this may not be the case for everyone. There are those who lived harder lives than I and those who have lived easier ones. However, whether we played the game of life on Impossible mode or coasted through it with fingers in our mouths, we all share this feeling of wanting the past. The familiarity of what we once knew and felt.

For those that are stuck in the past, reminisce. Remember. Recall what it was like to feel those emotions you strongly desire so that you may fight to feel them again.

To those of us living in the present, cherish the moment. This may be the last time that you ever remember what it is you're doing, so live it while you can.

And those which look to the future, keep looking up, and keep moving forward.

Cheers.