Nostalgia Won't Save Me

As the new year begins, (Happy New Year!) I cannot help but think about everything I have gone through. More importantly, the things, and the people I have lost. Bits and pieces of my innocence chipped away, laughter from friends replaced with silence, late car rides are now dark and lonely, and I am lost on the drive. I don't know where to go from here, which road to take, where do I even stop? So, I turn around. I go back to the past, to the start of it all. There lie my memories of old, and good times. Movies at midnight, endless shopping, singing, dancing... How fond those memories are. I find myself drifting away with these memories, so far astray that I don't realize the lights coming straight at me. And just like that, I crash, and darkness consumes me.

Turning back won't save me, the nostalgic past, no matter how sweet it was, will not save me. If I allow it to, it will kill me. Suffocate and drown me until there is nothing left, and I can no longer make new memories. Nostalgia is a great place to be, but only temporarily. Once you're comfortable, you'll never want to leave. You'll continue to play the same scenes over and over again, failing to realize that new scenes are playing out right in front of you.

It's time for me to put those memoires away. I will keep them forever, and visit them in the deep night, but never stay. I have to venture out and find the people and places that will keep me in the present, and help me to see the beauty in today.