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kleinbl00  ·  1595 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: November 13, 2019

You build a better future.

Nostalgia is an exercise in reflection: you are putting "where you were" in the perspective of "where you are" and reconsidering your regard for past events. Nostalgia is a pain in the ass when you have no good options: I am currently nostalgic for an era when I could buy fucking Kirin Light at the local grocery store because now my choices are basically IPA, Zima and wine coolers. Nostalgia is much less deadly when you have choices: I spent much of my 20s lamenting my inability to read signals in my teenage years because there's a whole lotta tail I coulda tapped and that would have made my life infinitely better. But I've been with a girl for 17 years who still wears size 2 pants, who still looks bangin' in a bikini and still hasn't figured out she's punching well below her weight.

You're in a shitty place right now, homey. You were going to change the world and now you're not. Or so you think. Nostalgia for you is a wistful exercise in what you were. Because you're unsatisfied with what you are, it's a net loss. The best way forward is to focus on what you're going to be.