My Adventure at Renaissance Fest

Nostalgia...What is Nostalgia?

As I wake up from yet another dream leaving me full of butterflies and joy, I reflect on what I saw. Me, my cousins, all my old friends, watching a basketball game together. It’s at our neighborhood basketball court...one we never go to anymore. One I haven’t been to in years. We were all meeting up there, for some rare occasion. I just felt this inner peace I haven’t experienced in a long time, this childish joy that only having the most important, amazing people in the same room can give you. Wasn’t our lives just a few years ago more intertwined, more connected? What happened? It’s said easily: We grew up. We all live separate lives, and we are all just trying to make it by day by day.

I listen to songs before work that my younger self loved. That younger self is only 4 years younger, yet I feel like I grew a lifetime apart from her. Where is “Lorde” now? When will Katy Perry come out with another pop single? Bruno Mars’ sound is a lot different now, but I still like listening to “Talking to the Moon” and “Grenade”. When I really want to get into my nostalgic niche, I’ll put on some old Disney songs. Maybe tear up a little bit. My childhood plays out in my mind...and it’s there again. That gushy, mushy, beautiful feeling that I can’t get anywhere else. An inescapable joy that is so intoxicating that my mind keeps going back to that wonderful place. That nostalgia.

Nostalgia is actually something that many Millennials experience as a generation. Not all of us. But a good bit of us. What is it that makes us yearn for the past so much? I can even call up my girlfriend who lives overseas, and she knows exactly what I mean. I’ll say:

“Hey, you remember such and such from middle school?”

And she’ll be like, “Yeah, I remember her, she was super pretty.”

“Yea, I saw on Facebook she’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant?!”

“Yes, pregnant! It’s just so weird to see that, when it feels like yesterday we were going to the skating rink together.”

“Yea, I know, I’ve been so nostalgic lately...”

And we’ll go off on a tangent about how we miss when we were kids, just walking around on a Saturday evening with nothing to do. Relaxing with our friends. Watching movies. Drinking sodas. Now everything is different. We don’t even have time to see each other at all. And our lives are so fast paced, we barely have time to take care of ourselves. We’re all just trying to survive. It’s a weird adjustment to make as a young adult...and something I’m still trying to process and cope with.

In his article Why Millennials Are So Nostalgic, Jairus Bradley writes, “The main reason for this is because of the prosperous and peaceful Clinton administration.” He later puts, “We then became involved in Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which continue to be combat zones to this day. A few years later the Great Recession hit. Food on the table and a roof overhead were no longer assured. The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 marked the beginning of the end for race relations. Empathy has been replaced with apathy and America is the most divided it has been in 50 years (Bradley).” If you’d like to read more of that article, here’s the link: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/millennials-nostalgic. 

I couldn’t further agree. This aching nostalgia that both me and some of my friends feel might not just be a personal issue, but a greater societal issue. We all feel it on a certain level, but what’s the underlying cause? Things were just different when we were younger...simpler. We were told in school that we could be whomever we wanted to be when we grew up. But can we really? In reality, a lot of things separate us sometimes from what we truly want. So we are forced to settle with a harsh reality which is that we unfortunately may never get there. Inherently, certain things separate us from our wildest dreams like finances and health. The job market depends on the economy, and we may be the best at whatever we do, but if the market isn’t there, our job prospects are stale. We all have to deal with the reality of our circumstances in different ways, and for some of us, nostalgia is just easier. It’s our coping mechanism. Instead of being bitterly annoyed about the way life has turned out for us, or the saddening news we hear on TV so often, nostalgia is just an alternative way to feel better.

Even though there have been a number of setbacks in the recent years, there are good things that have come out of these last few decades. Mental health is becoming less of a stigma, and more a topic of necessity. Conversations of healing have been opened for people who have been affected by abuse, sexually, mentally, and physically. The LGBT community is stronger than ever. People of different race, religion, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender are being heard, respected, and given a platform. Nothing is off the table anymore. Nothing is taboo to talk about. We are becoming more and more transparent...more and more genuine as a society, I believe. And hopefully this can keep going in the right direction, and we can be the generation that makes real change in this country.

What is my solution to this nostalgia ‘problem’? This is a problem that I and many other Millennials face as we are the generation that sports 90’s trends, still watches classic cartoons, and listens to old music. However, we can also be the trend setters and the people to change things. We can dream about the past, and focus on making a better future. We can work on building a golden age both within our own lives and in our communities. Even though our dreams may be on pause now, and sometimes it seems it will take an eternity to create the reality that we want, our journeys are substantial, unique, and important. We are earning our stripes so that we can take what we learn and make things better. I hope that if anyone out there is reading this who may feel nostalgic that you may get some hope and clarity from this article. Know that you are not alone. You are not stuck. There will be a brighter day...for all of us. I just pray we can keep fighting the good fight until then. I’ll see y’all on the other side of the Silver Lining ;).

-Jassy Jubilee

Bradley , Jairus. “Why Millennials Are So Nostalgic.” Odyssey , Rogers State University , 14 Nov. 2016, www.theodysseyonline.com/millennials-nostalgic.amp.