On Nostalgia.

At the risk of sounding totally emo, I've been thinking about feelings a lot lately. I'm not sure why, really. Maybe it's because things are mostly settled in my life, although I would hesitate to even say that because every time I do, something cuh-razy happens. Either way, I have been a big ball of nostalgia lately.

Nostalgia is kind of the cool thing right now, right? You can't go a day without some countdown on Buzzfeed about the twenty best things of [choose a decade]. People love thinking about their past. Reliving your best memories has been shown to decrease loneliness and anxiety. And it's kinda fun, right?

To me, the craziest part about nostalgia is that (Buzzfeed articles aside) it can come out of freakin' nowhere. There's no rhyme or reason, it just pops up when you least expect it. In fact, it's usually the little things that illicit the strongest emotions, right?

I was grating cheese for dinner last night when I got a message from Jenna telling me that she liked my post yesterday. When Jenna and I lived together, she never ever wanted to grate cheese because she was petrified she was going to slice her finger off, so I always did it. As soon as I got her message, I felt like I had been transported back to our old kitchen, grating cheese while Jenna browned some hamburger meat for Taco Pie. It was so vivid, so much more than just a memory. It's crazy that it was five years ago. FIVE years ago I was a junior in college, living in an adorable apartment with my best friend. Five years. I can't even wrap my head around it.

Saturday morning, Garrett and I watched The Hunger Games. As I was watching the credits roll at the end, I was immediately transported back to the first time we had watched it. We had only been dating a few months, and we had binge-read the entire trilogy a few weeks before so we could see the movie when it came out. We saw it in Norfolk, at the expensive movie theater because doing things together was still new and exciting and we didn't care about being practical. Our relationship was so fresh and so honeymoon-y, which is a stark contrast to where we are now: settled and comfortable and normal. Obviously, this is is where the really meaningful parts of being in a relationship come in, but there's still something really special about the honeymoon phase in a relationship that you know you're never going to get back.

Then there are all the weird, little things.... I have a pint glass (that I stole) from The Village the last time I visited Laura in Richmond that always makes me smile. Whenever I look at all the books on my bookshelf, I think about how most of them were bought during rips to Ed McKay's with Kelsey, our usual destination after we filled up on Ham's and Port City Java. Ridiculously enough, Pumpkin Spice Lattes make me nostalgic sometimes because they're something that I've loved for six years now, and quite frankly, there are very few things that been consistent in my life for this long.

I'm so grateful for all of these memories that have made my life a truly happy one, but man, do they give me the feels. I've finally discovered that feelings aren't something to hide or ignore, though, so for now, I'll play my favorite memories back in my head, and continue to chronicle them on my blog. I like it that way.