Fix your eyes on the horizon ahead
Use your nostalgia as motivation for the future
By AMBER DUHS — alduhs@ucdavis.edu
Whether it’s lying under the cold blanket of the evening sky or basking in the warm sun among morning dew stuck to the grass, I continue to find myself in deep thought accompanied by an all-too-familiar feeling — a nostalgic memory of the past paired with a pit in my stomach.
My social media algorithm senses my propensity to become entrapped within my mind in the late hours of the night, supplying me with a perpetual loop of videos that offer flashbacks to pivotal moments in my life. From the elementary school Thanksgiving parties that remind me of the best friend I lost touch with, to the beachy summers that began the cementation of my identity as a beach lover, it seems like almost anything could be nostalgia-fied with the right song and assortment of Pinterest images.
Nostalgia is one of the most human experiences a person can have — we use our past memories and feelings to compile a perfect evocation, all accompanied by the subtle hum of bittersweetness. I have to admit; I’m a sucker for it.
When you’re faced with the empty reality of never being able to return to your childhood, nostalgia can be a wonderful comfort. But lately, my wistfulness has become a weapon — it has a mind of its own and fictitious stories to tell. The sad truth is, we fixate on the past as if it’s something better than what we currently have rather than what we should view it as: A memory to visit from time to time.
This notion often leads us to think that the past deserves to take up more space in our minds — and is inherently more appealing than the present. We convince ourselves that the blissful experiences we once had will never present themselves again. We become blinded by the euphoric feeling that nostalgia grants us, forgetting the adversities it took to reach that point of contentment.
It’s become clear to me that we’re not actually pursuing a taste of the past, but an escape from our rocky, unstable reality and unknown future that lies ahead. It’s difficult to convince myself that the future I stand at the edge of is truly the better option if its formidable opponents are the fluid memories of my childhood or teenage years. The key, then, is to try not to let the elation of our past muddle the journey it took to arrive to the present.
The problem isn’t occasionally reminiscing on your childhood or giving in to nostalgia, it’s disregarding how you’ve grown. If we lose sight of previous hardships, we eventually lose sight of how much the blood, sweat and tears were worth where we’ve ended up. Our past selves are not ornaments to reminisce on as one-dimensional experiences, but testaments to how hard we’ve worked and how much we’ve learned over time.
We must shift our vision to focus on the real prize: What lies directly in front of us and, eventually, what lies farther ahead — the unseen, unpaved and glorious roads not yet taken.
Our instinct to compare ourselves to the past can be harnessed in a manner that reminds us what we’re capable of, rather than make us feel robbed of future opportunity or happiness. The current version of yourself is allowed to take up space to fuel the fire of your future and to create even more nostalgic memories for your future self to look back on. Enjoy the past for what it is and enjoy the future for what it could be.
Written by Amber Duhs — alduhs@ucdavis.edu
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