“I can’t go back to yesterday – because I was a different person then.” – Lewis Carroll
Nostalgia is a fun, little mental device for people. For the longest time, the term “nostalgia” was mostly used as a synonym for homesickness – especially for soldiers fighting far away from home. With more research on the term so has come the changing of “nostalgia’s” definition and how almost any and everyone has experienced that sentimental feeling.
Like a lot of situations, relationships, first time experiences, the potency of nostalgia has a way of making ourselves come across as better individuals than we were. Follies, faults and fundamental flaws in our characters are forgotten under the veil of nostalgia – making that image appear to be greater than the person reminiscing (and in some cases the opposite effect will occur where personal shortcomings are exasperated). We eventually hold ourselves to an unattainable standard simply because that standard never existed. It’s fine to look back on days gone by and think of the person we once were, but don’t dwell in that time with that image. To do so will cause a person to lose connection with the individual they actually are.
