Nostalgia

I've wound myself into a super nostalgic knot over the past few days. It started to tighten when I visited my old blog in preparation for starting this month-long blogging challenge. Upon glimpsing bits of my old life (mostly bits of my college life) that do not feel like a decade ago, I began to wonder a lot about who I was then and who I am now.

I sent a Marco Polo message to one of my besties and old roommates, Hilary, to discuss this. I was feeling a little down about how different my life is now because a lot of the situations and people that made me happiest back then have disappeared, at least in the way they were present in my life then. Of course, there are new amazing aspects of my life that have emerged since, but I mostly feel like I haven't progressed in the past 10 years the way I expected to. This became incredibly obvious as I read my old blog posts about what I hoped for the future.

It didn't help that my lazy Saturday morning was full of scrolling through everyone else's Instagram stories and seeing Facebook memories pop up on my feed from days of yore.

Weirdly, without having any background knowledge about the movie, I selected Midnight in Paris as my Saturday night flick. I settled into my couch, pulled up Netflix, and let the movie start to roll. Within the first few scenes, it became clear that one of those weird coincidences (that maybe aren't coincidences) was happening because this movie could not have addressed my nostalgia more perfectly.

If you've never seen it, here's a quick rundown: writer man and his fiancé are visiting Paris. The fiancé is not super into it, but writer man desperately wants to wander the streets of Paris at night to inspire his writing. His main character owns a nostalgia shop and lives in 1920s Paris, where it apparently rains a lot. At least in his nostalgic fantasy. Writer man finds a sort of portal that allows him to go back to this golden age and experience the 1920s every night at midnight. He meets F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, Hemingway, Picasso... the list goes on and on. He's floored. He can't believe how lucky he is. Until he meets this lovely lady in the 1920s who wants nothing more than to live in her "golden age," Paris in the 1890s.

This is when writer man says, "If you stay here though, and this becomes your present then pretty soon you'll start imagining another time was really your... You know, was really the golden time. Yeah, that's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life's a little unsatisfying."

Kind of a bizarre movie, but I haven't stopped thinking about this idea. Here are my takeaways:
  1. Learning from the past and even admiring it some is beneficial, but dwelling in the past isn't.
  2. Today, this present, will be my golden age one day. It may be hard to grasp that in the moment because, like the movie taught us, when we're in the thick of it, we definitely notice the unpleasant things more poignantly. But why can't we work to make it a little more golden now?
🖤MK

#SOL18 Day 3

Comments

  1. I know how you feel! Make a list of things you've accomplished and things that make you happy now. That will help you feel proud of who you are now. :)

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  2. I am being hot with waves of nostalgia lately- perhaps because I am about to move and will be lonely until I settle in. It is hard when our vision does not match our reality- but one of them has to shift to make your days happier. Your movie choice sounds perfect.

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  3. Fb and Insta don't help much when feeling down unless watching cute puppy videos. I am glad you found a movie to help you make sense of dwelling over the past.

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  4. Very interesting post. I love how you put into words and images what you are feeling right now. And then to stumble upon that movie! And I think I'll have to watch that movie, sounds so intriguing. Your post brought to mind so many books but Dumbledore's words to Harry Potter in the Sorcerer's Stone rose the highest, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." I think Dumbledore would have been proud of your two take aways!

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