The Past Has a Perfect Filter
We often hear people talk about how the past was better than the present. They speak about how they enjoyed nature, how school life was beautiful, and how friendships were more meaningful. They claim that the most beautiful and soul-satisfying songs were created during their time and that love was experienced in its truest form. They often say that they lived their lives to the fullest.
We, on the other hand, sometimes dismiss their longing and yearning as mere ramblings. But one day, my playlist proved my assumptions wrong. While I was working, my playlist was playing in the background when a particular song caught my attention. It made me stop and listen. Suddenly, childhood memories came flooding back, and I found myself smiling without even realising it. When the song ended, I resumed my work, but somewhere in the corner of my mind, I was longing for those childhood days. I began wondering whether life and music really felt more beautiful back then, or whether I was simply looking at them through the lens of nostalgia. It made me question myself: Was this what nostalgia felt like? Isn’t this something we have all experienced? Every generation has its own memories, attachments and moments it wishes to revisit.
This feeling of looking back at our past with affection is commonly known as nostalgia. Interestingly, nostalgia is not always an escape from an unhappy present. Imagine someone who is happy, financially comfortable and satisfied with their current life. They might still feel nostalgic about their childhood. This is because nostalgia is not necessarily about dissatisfaction with the present; sometimes, it is simply an emotional connection to a period of life that can never return. Our hectic routines and responsibilities leave us with little time to pause, and when we do, our thoughts wander towards the people, places, songs and experiences that once defined our everyday lives.
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Nostalgia is like an artist. An artist has the ability to highlight, select and romanticise certain things, and nostalgia does something similar with our memories. It allows us to look back at experiences that were once exhausting, but now appear beautiful in retrospect. It does not necessarily erase our difficult memories; rather, it changes the way we understand and interpret them. Just as an artist can focus on certain details while leaving others in the background, nostalgia can bring the beautiful aspects of our past into focus while allowing its difficulties to fade into the background. This is perhaps the perfect filter through which we view our past. Although it helps us appreciate the life we have lived, overindulging in nostalgia can make us dissatisfied with the present. It can become an emotional trap, preventing us from noticing the golden moments that lie right before our eyes.
Let’s take the example of our board examinations. Preparing for them was exhausting. We experienced fear, confusion and anxiety, constantly worrying about our results and future. However, when we look back at that period, we often feel nostalgic. What once seemed like a challenge is now is just another experience in our journey. Interestingly, we may not even miss the examinations themselves. Instead, we miss the experiences surrounding them: studying together, discussing questions with friends, having casual chit- chats, analysing question-paper answers and, finally, discussing our marks. Perhaps what we truly miss is not the event itself but everything that made it memorable. This makes us realise that nostalgia is often less about the past itself and more about the people, relationships and experiences embedded within it.
Perhaps we are also nostalgic about our former selves. During childhood, completing homework, securing good marks and achieving a top rank seemed like enormous challenges. As we grow older, our perspectives and priorities change, and so do our challenges. What once revolved around academic achievements may now revolve around building a career and securing a stable future. Although the nature of our struggles changes, the experience of overcoming challenges remains. Maybe, in longing for the past, we are also longing for the innocence, freedom and simplicity that once defined us.
But have we ever wondered whether our present will eventually become someone else’s nostalgia? Our generation has witnessed a transition from traditional friendships built around face-to-face interactions to newer friendships shaped by technology and digital communication. Years from now, we might look back at this period with affection, remembering the technologies, friendships and experiences that define our lives today. The present that we sometimes overlook may eventually become the very past we long to revisit. We look back at this period with affection, remembering the technologies, friendships and experiences that define our lives today.
We romanticise the past partly because we cannot experience it again. We can listen to the songs that once accompanied our everyday lives, and we can meet our school friends, but we cannot recreate the emotions and circumstances surrounding those moments. We cannot return to the innocence and excitement of those days. Perhaps it is this inability to relive certain moments that makes them so precious to us. The past becomes beautiful not simply because of what it was, but also because it is something we can only revisit through our memories.
The past and the present both have their own beauty. Perhaps the problem is not that the past was better, but that we sometimes fail to recognise the beauty of the present while living through it. Nostalgia should remind us of how beautifully we have lived, not make us forget how beautifully we can still live. Someday, we might find ourselves longing for the very moments we are living today. Until then, perhaps the best thing we can do is to embrace the present and learn to live life to the lees.
