Yes, My Name Is Nostalgia

Nostalgia, an underrated emotion, people always tell me that I should leave the past behind, forget about everything and every person who passed a short or long time with me, but are not part of my present now. In my 17 years I always think that I was dumb, and that I never overcome my past, but there is an emotion that represents how I am, how I feel and how I see the situations of the past, yes, how I mentioned before, nostalgia. I don’t understand how people can just forget about things that happened before. My mind remembers every specific moment, words, faces, tones, songs, foods and smells.

I remember when I was a child at Christmas time, in Peru. I think that all hispanics families celebrate it the same. We are very united. We start from December 24th, we put on our best outfits, we have the Christmas tree set up, we prepare a lot of food, you could smell it so far away, all the family in one home, usually in our grandparents home. When the clock hands mark 12:00am, you can see the fireworks in the sky, you can see the gifts under the tree, the happiness in your family’s faces giving you hugs, feeling the warmth of their arms, and listen to all of them telling “Feliz Navidad” to each other. Then all the family sits at the table and eats a big amount of food, roast turkey, salads, sauces, sodas, etc. And the favorite part of the kids, opening the gifts. You can feel the emotion of the kids, and also of the adults of the family. I can say that I feel sadness and happiness at the same time. That’s the magic of nostalgia, you could feel 2 emotions and it doesn’t mean that it’s something bad. 

I also remember the first day of school, I was really scared, I thought that I’ll never understand the language, and never have friends. That day I had english in my 3rd and 4th period, I went to my class, and there I met my english teacher, he was from Indiana, he was the kind of person whose pure soul you can see through his aura. I feel peace in his class, and he always demonstrates empathy, and thanks to him I could get a lot of trust in me. I’ll never forget when he told me, “You are a really interesting and intelligent person, you just have to know that you could do all the things that you want if you propose to you, you have all the potential to achieve everything, so just do it ”. I had a really good time with him, because I saw him as a brother, but always with respect. But then the year ended, and when I came back to high school, he was not there. I felt sad, because I achieved many things because of him and his teachings. But my friends told me that I just have to forget him, that he was just a “simple teacher”, but for me was the first person who helped me in this country.

Then as you could see in those 2 anecdotes, I have two emotions at the same time, I know that you ever feel the same, maybe in an exam that you passed, a child experience, if you broke with your boyfriend or girlfriend, if you miss your family,  friends or pets, when you stressed for something, but then you solved it. I don’t know, there are many situations to feel nostalgia. I personally consider myself as a sentimental person, if I see you crying I would probably cry too, if I see kitty in the street I would go and caress him as if it was mine, if you are happy for something I would be happy for you too, because omg, we are live people, we should feel as much as possible, and that’s the part of be nostalgic too. I love to be nostalgic, I love to cry or laugh remembering the past. I love to express myself, and I admit it, it is really difficult to express yourself in another language which is not yours, but is the part of meeting another culture, people, and places and also feelings. I would recommend you to be nostalgic, remember your past, how it is, PAST. And don’t worry about what other people say. You will just be a person who feels a lot.