Remember When...

Think about one of the best memories you have. What was that memory? For me, one of my memories is probably my first win I got in a downhill mountain bike race. It was one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced and it is one of the reasons why I still ride a bike. It was a very nostalgic moment in my life and one that I think about all the time.

Nostalgia can be both a good and a bad thing. It is always nice to remember the good times in your life. It can raise your spirits when your down and it is just fun to sit around with your friends and be able to talk about all the good times you have had together in the past. But there is also a down side to your nostalgic memories in that you can get caught up to much in the past and the present will just fly right by you. It happens a lot when someone is feeling depressed and they want to go back to that time that was better and try to live their life like they did in the past instead of living in the present and for the future.

In the book An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro, the main character Masuji Ono is a perfect example why nostalgia can be a bad thing and a good thing. In the book we find Ono looking back at his life in order to validate his life as being a good one or as being a waste and it made him miserable. That is no way to live. There are times to look back on your life though for validation and that is towards the end of your time here. Then you can look back to the past for that validation because for most people when they look back to the past at this point they will find a lot of good things they have done and it will give them the confidence that they need to say “Yes my life was a very good one”.

So nostalgia has its good side and its bad side. It is a good thing as long as you don’t get too caught up in it and try to live your life in the past because then life will pass you right by and in the end you won’t have very much to look back on.