Hi, friends! I’ve written before about how I always have a movie of the month. In September, my movie was Dead Poets Society, which made me nostalgic for my undergraduate days.
It’s funny that the movie had that effect on me, though. For the most part, the boarding school in the movie is a place of conformity, restriction, and heavy-handed (literally) discipline.
And the truth is, there were plenty of things about my college days that weren’t so great, either. It wasn’t the happiest time of my life so far—it wasn’t even close. I was in unhealthy romantic relationships, I wasn’t good at making friends back then, and drug and alcohol abuse were rampant on the campus. In addition to my course load, I was working long hours to make ends meet.
We sometimes think back wistfully on times that were far from perfect. Why is that?
What was I really longing for?
Autumn, for one thing. My two favorite professors, who have both since moved on to another plane. The fall season and an inspiring professor are big parts of Dead Poets Society. And so, of course, is writing poetry, which I haven’t done in years. I also miss reading challenging books in pretty places.
Regarding my professors, I personally believe that we can still feel a connection and get guidance from those who have moved on before us. This is a common belief in many cultures and faiths.
But no matter how you feel about that: I could have any of those other things back.
I’m traveling to Boston this weekend to see family, where I’ll experience the fall. If I want to read challenging books in pretty places, I have almost no end of options. If I choose to, I can write poetry again.
Maybe nostalgia is one way our subconscious tells us what we need.
Any time we feel nostalgic, I think it’s worthwhile to take a minute and examine exactly what it is we are missing. If we have nostalgic dreams, the meaning might be that we need to re-introduce something into our lives again.
Are we nostalgic for friendships from a certain time in the past? If those people are still on Earth, maybe we need to connect more often with them—or re-connect. And maybe we need to forge new friendships, too.
Do we have childhood nostalgia? They probably still have cartoons on TV on Saturday morning. Maybe we’d like to take up bike riding again.
Some things feel lost when they’re really not.
There’s all kinds of trash in our pasts, and it’s nice to leave it there where it belongs, but there are so many things we can recover and make a part of our lives again, whenever we feel the urge.
Even the people we used to be—the wild teenager, the newlywed, you name it—are still inside us, and we can always let them come out to play again.
And while we’re at it, we can appreciate the good things in our lives right now.
I’m editing this after posting to add one very important point.
For writers, nothing is ever really lost. Ever.
We can write about the past, evoke it in new and more magical and romantic ways, and transform it. The longer we live, the more we have of it to use as raw material and inspiration.
What are you nostalgic for? What are some things you’ve enjoyed in the past that you’d like to enjoy again!
Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful week!
Great post for the second week of October. My nostalgia always seems to center around weather (seasons), TV shows, and noise. And, most of it is related to my childhood and times with my mom. My mom constantly had a box fan running (her diagnosis of MS caused her to run hot most of the time) and I purchased one myself. I turn it on when I miss her, even if it’s not meant for cooling me down. The TV shows she watched or we watched together (my father didn’t allow much TV) bring a sense of nostalgia to me. For seasons it’s more of a temperature thing. My visits to my mom (after my father moved us to Washington from California) took place during longer school breaks, usually summer. And living in Arizona, spring and fall feels like the times I was with my mom. I hope you have a great week and an awesome trip! Please share lots of fall color photos!!!
Hi Savannah! Aw, I love that about the fan…it’s so lovely. It sounds like you have so many good memories that are about her!
And thank you—it’s going to be a quick trip, but I think it’ll be so much fun!
Lots to think about, here! I often feel nostalgic for other places where I’ve lived, even if things weren’t so great while I was there. Weather, small-town appeal, lakes…are all a big part of this. I sometimes use those settings in my writing, as a way of working through some of my related emotions.
I also use the settings and nostalgic feelings in my writing. Sometimes it can be very therapeutic.
I agree!
It’s interesting how much the weather can make so many of us nostalgic! I think using setting like that is such a great way to evoke and process emotions. Thanks for commenting, Becky. 🙂
It’s fall. The temp this morning was 42 degrees here in MO. There was a chill in the house when I crawled out of bed.
The first cool mornings take me back to growing up on the farm, the early routine of chores and my mother cooking breakfast. The colder temps inspired her to cook more than what she served on hot summer days, already 80 degrees at sunup.
I remember her stirring up a batch of biscuits, frying ham, bacon, or sausage, potatoes or eggs and making gravy. I remember her standing in the kitchen in her apron, cooking, talking and laughing with each of us as we came in to eat after chores or on our way to school. We wondered all day what she might be preparing for dinner.
Some of our favorites were sausage and fried apples, chicken and dumplings, vegetable beef stew, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and her canned green beans. There was usually fresh baked bread and pie or cake.
It wasn’t just the food. I can still smell that kitchen, feel the warmth, and hesr the sound of chatter and laughter around the old round wooden table. You can’t duplicate that, no matter how hard you try.
I can’t eat like that anymore, but I hope my kids have similar memories of me cooking my mother’s recipes for them, and the warmth we shared as they grew up.
Thanks for stirring up those memories, Bryn. I think I’ll go fry some turkey sausage and a few apples.
You conjure quite a picture. I can smell the food and it takes me back also to my childhood here in Pennsylvania. My mother cooked similar meals and so have I through the years. We didn’t live on a farm, but were very rural and farms nearby where we all played. Thanks for the memories.
My memories of a trip to Pennsylvania include a piece of shoo fly pie. I tried a recipe a friend gave me but it flopped. Did your mother make it? I thought it delicious, kind of like the filling in pecan pie without the pecans.
It sounds like food’s the first thing on my mind. It may be close, but I actually eat light and stay at a healthy weight. I do enjoy some fried chicken on occasion though.
I’m glad I managed to take you back to fond memories. Have a good day.
Oh, Bonnie, I loved this post. So evocative! What wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing. I miss Missouri sometimes. 🙂
Thanks for the nice post Bryn. It is comforting to think that when something makes us nostalgic, taking us back maybe to a time, place and event we enjoyed, we can still enjoy something from that. We can recreate some of it possibly, even if we can’t go back. I agree with you that certain emotions we experience during these times may be our senses/mind/bodies pointing us to something we need. Follow your senses. Have a great day!
Hi, Cheryl! (Sorry I’m a day late in getting back to everyone here…that happens sometimes! My SIL and nieces and nephew are here, which is so nice.) Thanks so much for reading! I wasn’t sure if anyone else would be interested in this, so I appreciate the comment. 🙂 Hope everything’s going well for you this week.
Lovely post. My nostalgi is often for my younger self: a more uncertain me, yes, but also more innocent and trusting, far less cynical, much more hopeful. I’m basically a positive person but I do wish I could harness some of that youthful,optimism and energy once more. And in Australia where I live, it’s spring right now, and my birthday month, so nostalgia comes from the essential hopefulness of the season of new beginnings and growth.
Aw, love this post, Denise. I think the people we used to be are still in there…even if it can be tricky to get them to come out again. 🙂 I always forget about it being spring there now. It is such a hopeful time. Thanks for commenting!
Bryn, hello:
My oh my, your ability to share thoughts and feelings warms my soul. Thank you for such personal sentiments and memories.
For me, nostalgia butns for my small hometown in Canada where my longedt, oldest friends as well as most of my family still live. I miss them all. And yeah, fall and winter and spring on the east coast. Bug hugs to all
Aww, thanks, Bryan! You are too kind. You said before that you were from Canada, but I keep thinking of you now as being from Hollywood. 🙂 I didn’t know you grew up in a small town. That sounds wonderful. I hope you’re having a good week!
Awww..Nostalgia…The good ole days…When life was so much simpler. My first thought after reading your lovely words was DANCING. You see, I love to DANCE. My husband and I have danced through our 54 years of marriage. It began with the twist. and the jitterbug. We jitterbugged through high school and twisted through college, dirty danced through raising three daughters into strong, opinionated woman. They are my three greatest accomplished dances. But, awww the slow dances have kept our hearts where they belong to each other. We still dance even in our 70’s. We crank up the music and dance in our kitchen, on our patio and even in parking lots whenever the spirit moves us. We both love to dance and have danced together since we were teenagers. I must tell you there is no more twisting going on. We discovered twisting is beyond our grasp these days. Nostalgia…thank you for providing my mind with these mostalgic reflections. I plan to jitterbug up the staircase to meet my Maker. I will continue to DANCE THROUGH MY LIFE….
Jan! Oh, my goodness. This is such a great post. I just love it! Beautiful. You and your husband are amazing.
The 70’s. My childhood. <3
You have a really really engaging writing style! I love it