The Power of Nostalgia

In Roxane Gay's piece I Once Was Miss America she introduces this idea that nostalgia can reshape our memories of a time and make it seem better than it ever truly was. This mind game is one that I played on myself far too many times when I was younger. Coincidently, this summer I had a creative writing assignment which I acknowledged this idea. The beginning of the piece is as follows:

"When I was a young girl I watched the birds

Through a large window at the front of our home.

It was a pleasant memory of my innocence

Until I learned that the mind has a funny way of coping with pain

And that you abandoned our family."

The body of the piece is full of personal details of my life, but my point can still be made with just the ending:

"When I was a young girl I watched the cars

While waiting for a man that never looked back at me.

Now you want to see me but I am too high,

Even for you.

You can never reach me now. "

In her piece, Gay describes turning a good memory into an amazing one. In my case, my childish mind turned a terrible memory into a mediocre one. Still, the concept is the same. Our mind wants to make things better. Whether this is because we are amping up a good time of the past or trying to erase a tragedy, the mind works the same. The mind’s erasing powers may be compared to the skin healing a scar. A cut may be acquired during a fight with the neighborhood bully or while scoring the winning goal at a state championship Either way, the body will react to the injury the same; patching the cut with a scar that shows it has healed. That is the goal of the body and the mind - to heal. These techniques of self healing are done to make us better both mentally and physically. There is no need to feel the pain of a cut knee forever. We can see the scar and remember it and grow from it, but the pain will fade. These bad times do not need to contaminate all of our memories. We can know that it happened, but choose to remember the good parts that surrounded the bad. In a lighthearted sense, this is similar to how Roxane Gay chose to remember her love for the Sweet Valley High series instead of all of its technical writing issues.