My nostalgia switch is broken

[Goji]

There is something seriously wrong with the memory center of my brain. I'm starting to get nostalgic for parts of my life that I consciously know I hated living at the time. It's weird, this has never happened to me before. Maybe it was inevitable, I don't know. But it offends me to feel the same sort of warm nostalgia for the terrible parts of my life as I do for the parts that I actually liked! Personally I blame my recent college graduation for this. It has affected me somehow, and now I actually feel nostalgic for high school - and I fucking HATED it! I know that consciously, and I would never, ever choose to return to those years under any circumstances, but when I think about them now I unconsciously feel nostalgic. I can't control it. And that pisses me off. It is an affront to my misery at the time to feel anything positive about it now.

Is this normal or am I going insane?

 

[SPOCKED]

My most nostalgic times always seem to be in the 5 to 7 years ago range. I think its a guy thing.

 

[NickInABox]

Dear "Nostalgic and Insane":

A lot of readers ask me questions like this one, and the best advice I can offer is to take life one day at a time. We never know what life throws at us, but we must soldier on with our heads held high and with a smile on our face.
You're using your previous experiences as a coping mechanism for dealing with your fear of the future. When we are in school, our immediate years are very predictable, but that all changes once we move on from that stage of our life. It's completely normal though. A lot of people go through it. Mystery is what makes life so exciting, but you're right to look back on those years. But they are what is familiar to you, and that's alright.
The key here is to continue moving forward, while looking back on your past experiences and how they've shaped you into the person you are today. I can only wish you the best of luck with everything, and I hope this makes some sense.

Or maybe I'm just fulla shit.

- Abby

AKA Nick.

PS> I wrote this all from the heart, so... if you dig it, that's cool.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I know what you mean.

I went to an all boys Catholic high school.
I'm 35 now, but for the longest time ( maybe when I was about 26 or 27) I'd look back at grade 12 with some fondness.
Even the little things, like the TNG epsiodes of the time (season 4) bring back an " Oh man....I remember watching this episode on that same warm spring day that I got Peter David's Vendetta!" flood of warm memories!

 

[Amaris]

There is something seriously wrong with the memory center of my brain. I'm starting to get nostalgic for parts of my life that I consciously know I hated living at the time. It's weird, this has never happened to me before. Maybe it was inevitable, I don't know. But it offends me to feel the same sort of warm nostalgia for the terrible parts of my life as I do for the parts that I actually liked! Personally I blame my recent college graduation for this. It has affected me somehow, and now I actually feel nostalgic for high school - and I fucking HATED it! I know that consciously, and I would never, ever choose to return to those years under any circumstances, but when I think about them now I unconsciously feel nostalgic. I can't control it. And that pisses me off. It is an affront to my misery at the time to feel anything positive about it now.

Is this normal or am I going insane?

Behold the ravages of age! Ha HA!


J.

 

[James Tiberius Kirk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_retrospection

Yeah, a well known phenomenon, not much to be done, I've experienced it myself.

 

[RoJoHen]

I get nostalgic for some of the less enjoyable times of my life because my current life is so boring. I may have hated living with my first college roommate, but at least it was always interesting!

 

[Praetor]

To answer the question... A little of both?

I can relate.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've always been the nostalgic sort (probably why I never throw anything away), but it is definitely acerbated by age. I do find myself feeling tolerant, and even a bit wistful, about things that made me cringe at the time. For example, the other day I was driving in my car and I realized that I had listened all the way through "Stayin' Alive" without changing the station-- and I had actually enjoyed it.

 

[RandyS]

My most nostalgic times always seem to be in the 5 to 7 years ago range. I think its a guy thing.

Not really. I feel nostalgic for things that happened to me twenty years ago.

And sometimes thirty years ago.

But I still prefer my life in 1989 to my life in 1979.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Is this normal or am I going insane?

Those don't have to be mutually exclusive, you know

 

[An Officer]

Nope, I'll never see the day when I'm nostalgic about my high school. Full of thugs, substance abusers, and teen mums. *Shivers*

 

[Mysterion]

Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be.

 

[Goji]

There is something seriously wrong with the memory center of my brain. I'm starting to get nostalgic for parts of my life that I consciously know I hated living at the time. It's weird, this has never happened to me before. Maybe it was inevitable, I don't know. But it offends me to feel the same sort of warm nostalgia for the terrible parts of my life as I do for the parts that I actually liked! Personally I blame my recent college graduation for this. It has affected me somehow, and now I actually feel nostalgic for high school - and I fucking HATED it! I know that consciously, and I would never, ever choose to return to those years under any circumstances, but when I think about them now I unconsciously feel nostalgic. I can't control it. And that pisses me off. It is an affront to my misery at the time to feel anything positive about it now.

Is this normal or am I going insane?

Behold the ravages of age! Ha HA!


J.

 

[Finn]

Riitht now, I prefer 2009. You see, I was single before this year.

But I do sometimes miss the mid to late 1990s.

 

[Mallory]

It gets worse as you get older Goji. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

[RandyS]

It gets worse as you get older Goji. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Now, THIS I agree with.

But don't fear too much Goji. Maybe you get lucky and grow handsomer as you age. It happened to me after all.

 

[Goji]

I've long since come to accept my looks.

But I have no time for fear. I've got far too much dour cynicism to pack in to my day.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I think it is very easy to feel nostalgic for the past which we know very well in every detail especially when we are concerned with the vagaries of the future. A lot of people will embrace even misery because they are familiar with it being more afraid of a future that will be entirely new to them.

I myself find I am extremely nostalgic for 80's heavy metal music even though I was never that big of a metalhead. I love guitar playing and it seems like that was the last time really great guitar players ruled the pop music scene. I'll go on You Tube and watch hours of video from Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Tony Macalpine and, heaven help me, Yngwie Malmsteen, who I actually hated at the time, simply because I remember it well.

 

[Nardpuncher]

youtube is Hell on me for creating nostalgia.