Caleb - Week 15 - What's so good about the past?
Whether you were curled up in your bed watching a movie or outside reading a book, everyone remembers where they were when the news hit. 9/11? Celebrity deaths? January 6th? No, "two weeks" off of school in the early stages of covid-19. We all thought it was a much needed vacation, or an early spring break, but none of us were ready for what was yet to come. But surprisingly, most of us disliked online school and not being able to go outside. We all felt trapped and restricted. For most people our age, the coming year and a half were filled with video-game addiction, scrolling addiction, eating addiction, or all of the above. But surprisingly, most of us find ourselves missing quarantine. It seemed as if times were simpler and almost everything was easier. Looking at that time in retrospect makes it easier to forget the worst parts of it, "blinded by nostalgia" as they say.
While this specific example may vary for different individuals, it is definitely true that we tend to forget the difficulties which we faced in old memories and only focus on the good sides, therefore only remembering the great parts and feeling as if that time was perfect.
This is why it's important to live our lives to the fullest and not be blinded into envying who we were and how life was in the past. So make sure you always keep in mind that the rearview mirror is for glancing, not staring.
Photo Credit: https://vocal.media/humans/what-s-the-difference-between-thinking-of-people-of-past-and-present
Whatsup Caleb! First of all, I LOVE LOVE that bomb saying you mentioned, "...always keep in mind that the rearview mirror is for glancing, not staring," because WOW, that's so badass. I really resonate with this blog because memories are definitely a double-edged sword. Just as much as there are good ones, we're always plagued by the bad ones. Like you said, COVID was a bad time for everyone, but it marked the end of when life wasn't that serious. Compared to so many people living it up in the 2018 and 2019's, every student I see now is miserable. And can I just mention how mid music is now compared to back then...I think it's very important to learn from one's mistakes and bad past experiences, but it shouldn't define us and stay in our consciousness forever. It's very hard to not feel guilty or responsible for the past, and it's just as hard to not feel worried and concerned with the future. It's just generally difficult for people to live in the moment, which I think was something people learned to appreciate at least a little bit with the given time in quarantine. Your ability to talk about such philosophical things and look back on humans' faults is truly remarkable and it always is a treat to read. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Caleb,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you chose to base your blog about the aspect of nostalgia, that we should not focus too much about the past even though it makes up a large portion of who we are today. I specifically like how you chose to focus on the subject of quarantine. From the years from 2019-2020, each of us faced the same monumental global event, however we faced them in our own ways. We all had that collective experience of sitting in our own home during the same era of our lives; however, we each may have good or bad memories from that time. In your blog, you focus on how people have good memories of quarantine, but it is important to remember and keep in mind that in a moment such as the pandemic, not everyone had good memories. It was a time of distress, especially when family members may have been sick. However, I like how you entail all of this in the phrase “blinded by nostalgia” because this displays how we simply want to go back to more simple times, where we did not have to worry about our future as much as we might do right now.