Hello, this is my first post on this account, I doubt anybody will even see this but I guess I’ll get right into it.

It all starts back in my junior year of high school, I remember I got a new lamp for my bedroom and it looked a lot like the one my grandmother had when I was younger. I was so in love with this feeling, that I now know is called nostalgia, that every weekend I would use the lamp instead of my main bedroom light to make it feel more like I was back at her house on the weekends. (I do it to this day)

For a while I started doing small things like this in addition to just the lamp, such as using old websites for the aesthetic or getting super into nostalgic music again. It’s funny looking back now and realising it ramped up as my depression worsened, but I digress. After I graduated school, to keep things short, my life was just hell. A big mess, started community college but dropped out, couldn’t get a job, ended up being kicked out by my dad over this and was homeless for a bit. This made my senior year of high school like a cutoff point for that nostalgia thing. I wanted for the longest time to either just die or go back in time. Eventually though, I managed to climb out of homelessness but not without ending up thousands of miles away with no friends or family nearby me. It’s been years since then, but I can’t help but think back and realise that ever since that day years ago where I finally made it back to a normal life, I’ve only made 2 new core memories really. One was going to a new state to see a dying family member after years to say my goodbyes, the other was going to the big city I had always dreamed of seeing in person when I was in high school since I actually live nearby now (alone, and ended up being disappointed with San Francisco in person).

Other than those 2 things, my life seems to just be a looping cycle of wishing I was back in those junior and senior year days. I don’t own a car because I feel like it’s the last “old-world” freedom I have left from those days so to speak. Avoiding the final step of growing up I guess. I have an attachment to the same anime characters who were essentially my only friends back then for a long time (I still spend a lot of time alone in my room too because I struggle to make friends). I still fight the urge to sleep so I can pull all nighters just to stay up to see the sunrise while gaming and feel something (I have a monster in the fridge to do it tonight). I take lots of time off of work this time of year just to feel like I have a summer vacation back. I still eat a diet of mostly instant noodles and other cheap shit because my grandmother was poor growing up and that’s mostly what we had for snacks, it brings me comfort.

maybe this is kinda pathetic to say but I just feel like at my current age I am lightyears behind people mentally. I don’t even feel like I’m an adult to be honest. I just want to keep barely working and playing games and staying up late forever, while at the same time wanting to go back in time and re-do the past to not end up this way ironically enough. I miss what old friends I did have terribly as well. I just long for the days where I was clueless about how the world works and was busy listening to Tyler the creator’s new album while walking to school.

I doubt anyone can relate, but on the off chance anyone else is impaired by nostalgia or stuck in the past, I salute you. it sucks

  • KnoLord@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Hey, I absolutely get that - longing for a simpler point in life, where you didn’t have to worry about keeping yourself afloat or about the inequalities that the current world promotes. In fact - I want that feeling back too, where my biggest worries were if I had enough allowance left for sleepover snacks with my cousins and not if I have enough money left to pay bills or if I can get by with 3-4 hours of sleep at times.

    While I am not ‘stuck’ in the past, I do believe that neither are you simply stuck inside the past, because you still pulled through some very tough times. In fact, how you ‘relive’ the good memories seem good enough (minus the diet, but I’m not exactly better), especially taking some time-out for that summer vacation/holiday feel - I get that.

    I salute you too.

    • AnotherFutureOP
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      6 months ago

      Never actually thought of it that way. Sounds like you have some nice memories yourself :) thanks a bunch for the response.