A few years ago I lived and worked in London for a few months, residing in a pleasant but unremarkable house, doing a job at which I was fine but didn’t particularly enjoy. I’m from a different part of the country and returned from whence I came upon the job ending (this was always the plan, and it was a fixed-term job).
Since then, whenever I’m remotely near London I’ll take the time to drive past the area I lived in, down my old street, past the old workplace, the places I went for walks when I was there. I’ve even recreated my erstwhile on-foot commute for old times’ sake.
None of that would necessarily be strange had I had a whale of a time when I’d been there and was reliving the glory days. The facts, though, are I had an okay but thoroughly unremarkable time at the time, was only there relatively briefly and wasn’t in the least bit fussed or sad when I left. Yet I retain this yearning to go back and check up on the old haunts.
Perhaps this is an indication of a strange unhappiness somewhere within, or a need to justify my previous decisions to myself. Who knows. It just feels odd to have this nostalgia for something that wasn’t in the least bit exceptional or exciting at the time.
Anyone else ever do anything like that? Help me feel validated.
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I think it’s pretty common to feel that now we’re in the midst of madness lockdown. I’ve been reminiscing about really pointless, arbitrary things. Seems totally normal to feel like that about anything nowadays.
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I had a year of being unemployed living on my own doing nothing but Bad Company 2 and getting arseholed on super cheap red wine. I was about as miserable as I’ve ever been but I look back on that time fondly and with longing occassionally. Brains are stupid.
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I get this quite a lot. Went back to Cardiff the other year and was having a great nostalgic time walking around visiting my old haunts. Was just rose-tinted glasses really as I wasn’t particularly happy when I lived there. Was quite a lonely time
Moved back into my uni house before my final year and was home alone for one night, smoked a massive joint and watched Blade Runner 2049
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i got a weird rush of nostalgia the other day when i walked a different way to the main road, into the area where the last 2 houses i lived in were. it’s literally 2 minutes from my house and i still pass by all the time but with the nice greenery something overcame me nonetheless
I’m having intense lockdown nostalgia for ordering my daughter the kids macaroni cheese in a national trust cafe and then getting annoyed when it turns up with unadvertised spinach in it. It’s specifically the getting annoyed about the unadvertised spinach that I have the nostalgia for, is that niche enough
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Good thread.
Always find eating food you’ll only come accross once every few years will give me waves of nostalgia and forgotten memories.
Whenever I eat rum and raisin ice cream it’ll bring me back to this one place we’d visit on a long trip to visit family as a kid.