Anushree Navaneethakrishnan -- Echoes of the Past - 04/02
Memory is one of the most fragile elements of human existence. As I stand at the shore, the beach waves crash, collecting sand and placing it upon my feet. When the second wave comes around, it tends to carry some of the sand away, leaving certain amounts of sediment still on my feet. To me, memories are equivalent to that sand; they slip away from my fingers so fast yet still leave a bare trace.
These left-behind memories accumulate over time as you gain positive or negative experiences, shaping the way you are and react with the environment around you. This cluster of memories is what I believe makes up nostalgia; the “lonely” memories turn into something golden–yet hurts when you think about it too much because it is as if your past is begging you to hold onto it a little longer.
The magic behind nostalgia is not the content or the event itself, but rather the person who you were when it happened. It is that moment of introspection, when you realize the progress and character development that you have undergone – past vs present. That special feeling one feels, nostalgia, is more like a moment of pride and acknowledgement for the person you have become and evolved into, a pat in the back for experiencing and surviving through the learning curve.
But, the most magical aspect of nostalgia is its ability to bend time. The notion that it can exist outside of a timeline still manages to amaze me. When you want to recollect a moment of eating beignets at Disney when you are currently 16 writing a blog for AP Lang, nostalgia makes it happen as if it is picking a book from a myriad of collections in a library. It shapes and bends the timeline, so that we get to re-experience the occasion when we desire it.
Nostalgia is the echoes of the past and the individual we have evolved into!
Hi, Anushree! The opening paragraph to your blog post this week was particularly effective in regards to engagement because of its vivid descriptions; I could tell exactly what you meant when you described the phantom feeling of sand between your toes as the waves wash it away. I really enjoyed your notion of a memory being “equivalent to that sand” because they only “leave a bare trace” because it emphasizes the idea that the memories that we often revisit in our head are often only a smidge of the real truth—often, they distort or alter our perception of what truly happened in order to keep us moving forward. There are often times when I feel as though I have remembered all the necessary details about a certain incident or past experience, but I have to remind myself that there are a lot of nuances that memory can glide over in order to not oversimplify my perspective. Just like you, I have always been fascinated by the concept of nostalgia, and so I found your analysis of “this cluster of memories” to be incredibly insightful; it is amazing how, even after the toughest circumstances, it is easy to look back fondly once on the other side. I thought you were spot-on with the idea that our main fondness is because of “the person who [we] were” in the past, because regardless of whatever events happened, each little experience changes us in some way, whether that is noticeable at a glance or not. As such, a person can experience nostalgia at any time for any event, even if it is more recent than expected— “shap[ing] and bend[ing] the timeline” just as you said! Thank you for this opportunity to reflect on such an interesting emotion!
ReplyDeleteHi Anushree! I really like the first paragraph of the blog. The vivid imagery which you provided set a perfect picture of what you were trying to describe. It made me understand how you view memories and it helped me realize that I view memories in a similar way. Comparing memories to sand was a very creative thing to do, however, it does make a lot of sense. You also gave me a different perspective of nostalgia. I never knew how nostalgia works until you explained that it comes from previous memories. I always look back on nostalgic memories such as my friends and I biking around our neighborhood during COVID and I think about how much has changed since then. For example, I am not as close with those friends as I was at the time and I was much more active back then. Overall, this blog was extremely good and it allowed me to reminisce on old memories and times when I was happier. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Anushree, I really like your metaphor on the beach waves and the sand and how you compared it to memories. I also completely agree with your sentiment about how memories feel like they come and go too quickly in the moment, but when we take a second to zoom out of the hectic circumstances of our lives we get to see just how much these infinitesimally small occurrences have a bearing on our lives overall. Personally, I like to reserve time in order to explore what has passed and how it has changed me, usually for the better. I really love what you mentioned about nostalgia and how it is not determined strictly by the event or thing, but rather the person you were when the things happened. The blog provided a wonderful look into what memories and nostalgia holds in store for us and I enjoyed reading it a lot. It has many qualities that great writing possess such as a wonderful flow and tone.
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