nostalgia (nɒˈstældʒə, -dʒɪə) — n

 

It's a word that's bandied around a lot nowdays, but as defined in my battered old Oxford English Concise Dictionary School Edition, the word actually means "a yearning for the return of past circumstances or events". I'm bringing this up because, in an effort to avoid revision without pathetically falling into the FaceTwiTube procrastination trap, I thought I'd tidy my room. Upon throwing Guinness World Records 2005 and 3 odd drum sticks across the room, I found my old CD collection:



 

 Now most people would say they feel a sense of nostalgia when listening to their old music, but I know that the word means I want to go back to the time I listenened to it, which I don't. It does bring back fond memories; playing some aggressive air mandolin to the intro of Keep on Movin', learning how to play Clint Eastwood on my dad's bass for the first time, head-banging to By The Way and spraining my neck then having to go hospital to get it checALL.     FOND.    MEMORIES. 

And yet, I don't have a yearning to return to my younger years. Admittedly less responsibility and less pressure on my education would be a blessing, but maturing and growing up was never a particularly difficult process for me, mainly because :

1. I'm still really quite immature
2. Late teenage years and the years spent at uni is a much more interesting period of life than anything previous, with a lot more freedom and independence.   

The point I'm failing to make here is that, although childhood memories, not just from music (old friends, events, holidays, moving house etc) will always stay with you and form a part of your personality, the fresh start that I hope to get when first starting university will probably leave me a lot more impressionable and give me fonder memories than I would get at any earlier stage of life, giving me new memories to look back fondly on in 5, 10, 20 years time and allowing any personal nostalgia to continue voiding and rewriting itself over a person's lifetime.

  AAND I just blogged something serious. pretty sure I told myself not to do that.
eurgh.

I'll leave you with this, should help you forget this ever happened...