Back then

“Everything was better when the times were better.”

There has to be a name for it.

And it’s not just plain nostalgia.

It’s almost like situational nostalgia.

It’s almost like when you only remember it because of where you were. You don’t remember the thing for the thing, but you remember what it reminds you of more than anything and that’s why you like it.

My brother and I had a conversation about this yesterday. We were talking about music and how his favorite album by a band is different from my favorite album by the same band.

Subjectively, they are both good albums, but we both like what we like because of where we were in our lives when we found them.

My favorite album reminds me of the fall of 2021 when I thought I had everything together. I remember going on a camping trip to Northern Minnesota with my girlfriend at the time and the weather was perfect and memories were perfect. At that time in my life, that album was a big piece of my personal soundtrack.

My brother didn’t experience that so he doesn’t have that connection with it.

I observe people getting into arguments often about things like this.

Just last night, I got into a friendly discussion with my cousins about which Star Wars trilogy is best. Then I realized that we all like what we like because of what it makes us feel, and what our expectations are of what it should be.

I was let down by the newest Star Wars movies because they did not fulfill my expectations of what Star Wars should be like. And they couldn’t. They couldn’t give me the feeling that I had when I was 4 years old watching the original movies with my Dad and seeing how excited he got watching them because they reminded him of when he was a kid.

EXPECTATIONS ARE THE ROOT OF UNHAPPINESS.

It is not that the movies are bad, it’s the fact that they didn’t meet my expectations.

The more I think about this, the more I realize I need to just accept everything for how it is.

The more I expect things to be a certain way, the more I am let down.

If you realize that things won’t be the way they used to be and just accept them for how they are, then you will be content with how it is.

EXPECTATIONS AND NOSTALGIA CONTROL YOUR PREFERENCES.

So much of the way you feel about anything is determined by how you have experienced it in the past, and how you expect it to be.

A person who is “stuck in their ways” is a person who is unable to accept that it is different than it was back then. They are a person who is still chasing that feeling that escaped them years ago. And they are unhappy for that reason.

You have to be open to new experiences or you will never find your happiness again. You will just go around wishing it was the way it used to be.

Don’t live in the past, accept that it’s over and be happy about it.

It will never be like it was back then.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.