A Glance Back While Looking Forward
By Sarah Johnson
Posted May 9, 2016
There are those moments in life when you are suddenly hit with nostalgia. You remember a piece of your past and you sit there and wonder where the time has gone. I’m nearing the end of my senior year of high school. I am looking forward to the future of college with wide eyes but at the same time looking at my past with teary ones. Many times I find myself going about my day only to stumble upon something that reminds me of my past. It always astounds me how that event in my life has come and gone and that all I’m left with is the memory. I’ve had many nights with my friends filled with remember whens and laughs about embarrassing moments that some of us would rather forget about. It’s hard to believe that I have so much ahead of me when I already feel like I have a lifetime of memories.
There are many different things that can trigger an event from your past to pop up in your mind. The taste of some chocolate, the smell of some perfume or even something as simple as a song can teleport your brain back in time. I was driving home from practice one day and I was stressed to the max. It was mid winter and I was up to my neck in school work not to mention the pressures that come with being on the varsity dance team. I do not live far from the school so my drive was not long but it was enough time to listen to one song. My ipod was on shuffle and as I started the engine a song came on that I had not heard for a long time. It was a song called My House and to anyone else it is just another popular song. To me however it is so much more. I had to stop and just sit for a second after the song started because memories came flooding back to me. I closed my eyes and those summer nights were as clear as if they were still going on. I felt the breeze of the wind hitting my face as my friends and I cruised the streets in the summer air. It felt as though we were always laughing about something even if it wasn’t even funny. We felt as though anything was possible and the sky was the limit. We had our same songs on repeat just to show off that we knew the words. We were living every night like it was our last. I opened my eyes as my stress just seemed to melt away for the moment. I put the car in drive and made my way home.
One of my favorite things are pictures. They are still images of a memory that will forever be alive. You can look back at them years later and reminisce about all the little things that the picture doesn’t show but you will never forget. I like to look back at the smiling faces of my friends when we were young and we didn’t have a care in the world. We were anything but ordinary children. We were amazed by all the little things and liked to reinvent everything we came across. There are pictures of my best friend Madelyn and I creating movies as we did a lot in our free time. Those pictures help me to remember all the laughs we shared creating goofy short films that will make us laugh until the end of time but make no sense to anyone else. Or the picture of my other best friend Abby and I dressed up with lipstick all over our faces with the biggest grins from laughing at some joke I will never remember. All these pictures are just reminders of all the little things in life that I hope I never forget. The playing in the sandbox with friends, making snowmen with my brothers, or just performing a magic show for my own enjoyment. These are the little things that had a big impact.
Now as I’m about to graduate and have my whole future ahead of me, I feel the need to just stop so I can take a look around. Many times when I’m laughing with my friends at some joke one of us made I find myself feeling time slow down. It’s just for a split second but I look around and soak in the laughter. I study the smiling faces of my friends who I will soon have to leave and I wish that I could stay forever in that moment of pure happiness. I know that one day that will come too soon I will have to hug them goodbye. I will not know when the next time I will see them will be or the next time I will be surrounded by the sound of their contagious laughter. All I can do is say goodbye with a smiling face and wrap myself in the memories they gave me and look to the future. A future that will eventually turn into a lifetime of memories.
Posted May 9, 2016
There are those moments in life when you are suddenly hit with nostalgia. You remember a piece of your past and you sit there and wonder where the time has gone. I’m nearing the end of my senior year of high school. I am looking forward to the future of college with wide eyes but at the same time looking at my past with teary ones. Many times I find myself going about my day only to stumble upon something that reminds me of my past. It always astounds me how that event in my life has come and gone and that all I’m left with is the memory. I’ve had many nights with my friends filled with remember whens and laughs about embarrassing moments that some of us would rather forget about. It’s hard to believe that I have so much ahead of me when I already feel like I have a lifetime of memories.
There are many different things that can trigger an event from your past to pop up in your mind. The taste of some chocolate, the smell of some perfume or even something as simple as a song can teleport your brain back in time. I was driving home from practice one day and I was stressed to the max. It was mid winter and I was up to my neck in school work not to mention the pressures that come with being on the varsity dance team. I do not live far from the school so my drive was not long but it was enough time to listen to one song. My ipod was on shuffle and as I started the engine a song came on that I had not heard for a long time. It was a song called My House and to anyone else it is just another popular song. To me however it is so much more. I had to stop and just sit for a second after the song started because memories came flooding back to me. I closed my eyes and those summer nights were as clear as if they were still going on. I felt the breeze of the wind hitting my face as my friends and I cruised the streets in the summer air. It felt as though we were always laughing about something even if it wasn’t even funny. We felt as though anything was possible and the sky was the limit. We had our same songs on repeat just to show off that we knew the words. We were living every night like it was our last. I opened my eyes as my stress just seemed to melt away for the moment. I put the car in drive and made my way home.
One of my favorite things are pictures. They are still images of a memory that will forever be alive. You can look back at them years later and reminisce about all the little things that the picture doesn’t show but you will never forget. I like to look back at the smiling faces of my friends when we were young and we didn’t have a care in the world. We were anything but ordinary children. We were amazed by all the little things and liked to reinvent everything we came across. There are pictures of my best friend Madelyn and I creating movies as we did a lot in our free time. Those pictures help me to remember all the laughs we shared creating goofy short films that will make us laugh until the end of time but make no sense to anyone else. Or the picture of my other best friend Abby and I dressed up with lipstick all over our faces with the biggest grins from laughing at some joke I will never remember. All these pictures are just reminders of all the little things in life that I hope I never forget. The playing in the sandbox with friends, making snowmen with my brothers, or just performing a magic show for my own enjoyment. These are the little things that had a big impact.
Now as I’m about to graduate and have my whole future ahead of me, I feel the need to just stop so I can take a look around. Many times when I’m laughing with my friends at some joke one of us made I find myself feeling time slow down. It’s just for a split second but I look around and soak in the laughter. I study the smiling faces of my friends who I will soon have to leave and I wish that I could stay forever in that moment of pure happiness. I know that one day that will come too soon I will have to hug them goodbye. I will not know when the next time I will see them will be or the next time I will be surrounded by the sound of their contagious laughter. All I can do is say goodbye with a smiling face and wrap myself in the memories they gave me and look to the future. A future that will eventually turn into a lifetime of memories.