Nostalgia Is Poison

I remember Mr. Magic, Flash, Grandmaster Caz
LL Raising Hell, but that didn’t last
Eric B. And Rakim was the shit to me

• 2Pac, Old School

The older I get the more romanticized things from our childhood tend to seem.

The music sounded better, the games we played felt better, society as a whole was just better.

But life wasn’t perfect, far from it and during those times I remember having plenty of stresses that we couldn’t wait for the future to come solve.

Nostalgia becomes this anchor in many ways that traps us in this romanticized version of the past that likely and truthfully wasn’t always all that, or at least not in the cherry picked moments that we tend to view it in.

It’s not to say shit wasn’t fun or that the memories of things from the past weren’t real. Gaming was definitely more fun 25 years ago, because gaming was the highlight of my day. Me and my boys only having school to worry about and plenty of free time to game together was jokes. Music was dope because it was fresh and new. Society was better because I wasn’t paying bills or involved with grown folk issues.

Nostalgia ain’t bad, but if we get stuck wanting, wishing and thinking about how much better things used to be we get stuck with our eyes in the rear view mirror. Appreciate the good times for what they were. Go ahead and remember and look back on ‘em fondly. But don’t let that cloud you from your present.

Enjoy what you got going now. The company, the friends the sounds of today, will be the ones you look back at in 20 years and remember as the good ol’ days. Don’t get trapped trying to hold on to the past when the future has so much yet to explore. Don’t let the past weight you down from enjoying the present. Keep moving, it’s the only way forward.