When it comes to memories, there’s value that lies even in the most painful ones. Altogether, this emphasizes the real power of human connection in the face of both love and loss.
Traditions anchor emotions in the arbitrary nature of time. They keep us connected and serve as a comfortable continuity across years, changes and age. My grandmother was something of an anchor herself within my family. She was always a centric presence during my childhood and, truthfully, a centric presence to almost everyone she encountered.
POV: It’s 2009 and your first grade class is having a Halloween party.
Your teacher is playing the “Monster Mash” and everyone is dressed up in their costumes, drinking apple cider and eating doughnuts. There are no worries in the back of your mind about work you have to do, only excitement about going trick-or-treating later.
When Nietzsche wrote, “Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders,” his aim was not to portray all forgetfulness as bliss, but rather to encourage a healthier relationship with our past and our memory.
Time is a valuable resource. The only lifelong activity we should be pursuing — with no fear of wasting time — is learning, and “it takes the whole of life to learn how to live.”
Life isn’t a waiting game. I want to be able to look down at my 20-year-old self from the top of the staircase and admire her just as fondly as I do the young girl fishing with her grandfather in the Russian countryside. To do so, I have to stop spending each day waiting for the next one. With so much time left, what’s the rush?
Oral storytelling is much more than simply recounting events — it turns words into images and emotions. The final result can be even more moving than books or movies because the stories come from real people in front of us.
Nostalgia’s good and bad usually exist simultaneously — the bittersweet pain of homecoming. If we are feeling down because of the past, then we need to live more in the moment. However, if we experience joy and happiness from our memories, then we should continue to let it give us hope and meaning.
In ninth grade, I wanted to write a book about real life. I must have been tired of UFOs and werewolves and happy things in general — I was suddenly preoccupied with somber scenes set to somber music,...
The past is a weird place to linger in. Being a senior in college, I am constantly reminded of how long I’ve been here, either through Facebook’s convenient “On This Day” feature which chronicles...
