Have you noticed the older you get, the more your perspective changes?
When you were little, just wanting to ride a bike. And once you were able to
ride a bike, just wanting to drive a car. You’re always looking forward, the
younger you are. I want junior high, I want high school, I want to graduate
college, a job, a wife, a family, a home. Then somewhere along the road you
stop looking forward and you start looking back, and you say, I wish I was young...
those were the days.
Everyone is enjoying the cool weather, but I could easily float back to May and replace these goodbyes with hellos, and reminiscence with freedom.
Nostalgia has the ability to captivate one's mind, enclose you within your thoughts and memories that you hope will never disappear.
That's why it's hard to sleep at night. It's the first time all day that you are alone with your thoughts. Scientifically, it's the time that your brain does it's processing of the day that you've had, recounting what has happened to put short-term memories into long-term storage. But the brain does nothing unnoticed by the mind. You lie there and reflect on the past, whether that be the last 12 hours or the last 12 months.
Ever since the beginning of high school, I've put my memories into a tangible form. I have random lists of things that happened on my Best Day Ever's, or notes on my iPod calendar claiming the small but noteworthy events that have happened that week.
This past spring I googled "phobia of forgetting" and came up with Athazagoraphobia. I am constantly picturing myself 20 years from now, wishing I could remember what I was like in high school and college. While this is highly unlikely to happen- nobody is THAT forgetful that they'd lose themselves- it still keeps me jotting things down.
Another reason in the back of my mind has to do with the fact that if I die young, I want some record of the life I’ve lived.
While May and June are times of LETS GO ITS SUNNY OUT I MISSED YOU LETS CHANGE OUR ETHNICITY TOGETHER YEAH BEACH YEAH, August brings the realization that man this summer was even better than last and where did the time go and oh you're leaving for college okay wow that was fast.
Every incoming freshman wants to relay the fact that they’re not looking back and are ready to break on into this new start of a school year, but in all sincerity, it's not possible to drive your car safely without looking in the rearview mirrors once in a while. You'll get to school and have an ultimate high, meeting people and walking through campus and joining new teams, but there will come a night a few weeks in, when you are alone with your processing brain and realize how much you miss "the good old days."
Well these ARE the days. So while excitement for the future is necessary to succeed in a new town, never, ever forget where you came from.
