I’ve had a lot of really memorable birthdays. I’m happy when thinking about each one because there are good feelings attached to them, like how I always spent it with my family and how my mom took the whole night before to make me a decorated cake from scratch. In June, I had yet another birthday, but I noticed something different this time about how it passed compared to as a child. I didn’t feel nostalgic about it, and I really hate to admit it, but I know why — I’m getting older.
One of the best ways to describe nostalgia is a yearning to return to something you’ve already experienced, because it’s something you remember fondly and holds tender emotions. Nostalgia doesn’t have to come exclusively from an image of your past — a smell, taste, or sound you used to know. It’s a unique and powerful feeling, but why is it so strong?
Turns out, it’s partly due to nostalgia being a neurological response, rather than just an emotional one. The two areas of our brains responsible for this are the hippocampus and the amygdala; they connect the processing of memory with emotion. It makes our memories stronger because we’re not only remembering what happened, but how we felt about it too. For example, if you’re listening to a familiar song from your childhood, it releases an extremely intensified reaction of “feel-good chemicals” such as dopamine. Mixing the memory from the song with something as potent as music itself is a recipe for ultimate nostalgia.
Another thing that makes nostalgia so strong is that our brains filter out the negative parts of a memory and therefore heighten the positive ones. My birthdays are heavily made up of positive emotions, and even though I didn’t remember any negativity from them, the nostalgia effect they had became weaker because I started questioning if what happened was really as good as I was remembering.
I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t want to grow up, and I wouldn’t say I’m afraid to… okay, maybe a little. I realized I started to embrace the anxiety and inevitable loss that comes along with it. As a child, I just didn’t think about the future that far ahead, nor understand or worry about what could be. As an adult, I think I’m more prone to think about the undeniable stresses and daunting parts of life. So, I can’t look at turning a year older in the same way I used to. At the end of the day, I like to believe that, with a better personal perspective, nostalgia will do me a favour and overpower anything I don’t want to feel.
I often feel nostalgic about childhood — adulthood just doesn’t have the same kind of innocence and freedom. Sometimes I wonder if I feel too nostalgic, like it’s discreetly acting as a response or coping mechanism to help me feel better about where I currently am in life or what I’ve achieved. It makes sense considering all the health benefits nostalgia has, like enhanced self-esteem, belonging, psychological growth, and well-being. Nostalgia is like a warm hug from your favourite person; providing emotional comfort and a place we feel we can always return to. The act of nostalgia is much bigger than we realize, healing us just by seeing a poster from an old movie we loved, or that certain smell from our grandmother’s cooking. It’s all around us, not just within us — another reason it becomes so impactful.
Agatha Christie once wrote in At Bertram’s Hotel (1965): “the out-of-date returns in due course as the picturesque.” She implies that things or moments of the past, outdated or forgotten, will eventually be seen as pleasing. It’s a perfect example that proves how even though we move forward from a memory, they never become irrelevant because the emotions stay with us. Due to nostalgia, those memories will return to us so we may look upon them in admiration. It’s such an important feeling, being a sign of maturity and of experience — for me, it means I’ve lived a little. So if you feel nostalgic, embrace it, because it’s what keeps you connected to yourself.
Veronica is a Staff Writer at The Cascade. She loves to travel and explore new places, no matter how big or small. She is in her second year at UFV, pursuing the study of Creative
Writing.