The power of physical nostalgia
Certain things feel like home. Whether it’s when I feel something, see something, have someone, or go somewhere, I always have that ‘at home’ feeling. It brings me comfort, joy, or maybe even love.
Euphoria fills me as it happens. It’s like my safety blanket, and it will never cease to do that one thing for me.
For me, it’s driving down country roads while listening to country music as I feel freedom following me. The humid wind rushes throughout the blast of the opened windows out on the freedom road. The body of the car engulfs the beat of the music.
It can be anything, or anyone, out there.
That thing is like a drug as well; I always want to experience it, and it never tires me. Everything fades out as this thing takes over me, and I always want to experience it.
Nostalgia could also make it important if it reminds me of childhood memories or good memories. It might not even be the thing. It could be the feeling of doing that thing or knowing that it has sentimental value.
Revisiting memories by returning back to them or reliving them mixes up our feelings and perception of time.
The feeling as I drive through each city and think about the lives people live.
Physical things can feel like home. Experiences can feel like home. People can feel at home. I wonder if déjà vu is another form of a hidden nostalgic feeling because when it’s experienced, it feels as though the person is taken back into memory in time.
The present experience triggers past memories and nostalgia, and it brings back memories that create a sense of a flashback in time. The endorphin rush I gain from thinking, seeing, or actively being in past memories gets me in my feelings.
The sudden push out of nowhere in which I experience the past ignites my mind into a frenzy of past feelings and emotions. My mind suddenly averts to remembering how I was feeling at that exact moment in the past. The everlasting touch of singled out memories can as much bring me to cry a single puddle.
My thoughts ignite memories that make me think of my past, my childhood, and my experiences. I sometimes relax my body; I let thoughts freely flow. No longer allowing my mind to work as a dam to my thoughts sometimes.
I feel as though when my feelings overtake me it allows for my thoughts and emotions to take the keys to my body.
I feel everything and everything feels me.
Savannah Elenbaas is a senior entering her second year on staff for The Central Trend. You can find her freefalling into her love of driving in the middle...