The Novelty Of Nostalgia

A couple of week ago I was having a conversation with a friend and we somehow got onto the topic of quotes. And so I told him one of my favourite ones.

“Everything you see is nostalgia because people are afraid of the future.”

It’s going to seem so random, but that quote is from Donald Glover. Some of you may know him as Childish Gambino.

Then he asked me why I liked it so much.

I think the uncertainty about the future is kind of what makes it worth looking forward to for me. Granted life was great as a kid for me and I’d love to reminisce about it forever, but there’s a point where you have to let go of the nostalgia, and keep creating a life worth living in the future. I think some people can’t let go of the good things and not see the great things that lie ahead in their life.

That was my exact answer.

There is so much going on in the world that revolve around Generation Y’s childhood. Disney movies are being remade. TV shows are getting remade. Video games are being remade. And what now? Pokemon. As much as I enjoyed Pokemon as a child, I just can’t get into it now.

I get that my generation as parents want to show our children the joys of our childhood with the original Disney movies, which is fine, but with the advancement in technology, they might not enjoy it as much as us, and we need to let that go. We can’t dwell on our past and think it’s the greatest ever.

My dad always tells me about his childhood and about everything he did, but he doesn’t expect me to do things like he did. He’s moved on from the past and looks forward to his own future, and looks forward to my future.

We can’t be afraid of the future. We can’t let things in the past dictate our lives. Dictate is probably a strong word to use, but I’m using it anyway. We can’t keep remaking things. Move on to better things. Move on to greater things.

The uncertainty in life is what I think makes it more exciting. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. You don’t know what’s going to happen in a month. Could be something great. Could be something bad. So many people have their lives planned out, or are in the process of planning out their lives. It’s nice to have the smallest amount of certainty, for example: you will get through whatever it is you’re going through right now, but taking it day by day and just letting things fall into place how they’re going to is the best way to do it. All of this in my opinion. I’ve always been a go with the flow kind of person. But I don’t let anything dictate my life. I don’t let the past dictate it. I don’t let people around me dictate it. I make my own decisions.

I choose not to live solely based on the past because at some point, the novelty of nostalgia wears off. There’s only 2 things in my life that make me think of the past, but I don’t let it conform my way of living. I look forward to what lies ahead for me. You should too.