Department of English Language and Literature

Byun Soo-youngDepartment of English Language and Literature.
Byun Soo-youngDepartment of English Language and Literature.

 

Is there a certain period of time in your life that you miss? Do you long for your childhood or your teenage years? If you are an adult, do you miss your twenties? Since the past is the only element of life we have no control over, it causes a sentimental feeling of nostalgia that grows over our daily lives. 

Recently I came across a post on Facebook listing a number of hit-songs from the 2000’s. Starting from ‘Wonder Girls – So Hot’, ‘Lee Hyori – U-Go-Girl’, ‘Big Bang – Haru Haru’, all the way to ‘Aftershool – Diva’, ‘2NE1 – I Don’t Care’, and even Pop songs such as ‘Westlife – My Love’, they all triggered my nostalgic nerves to wake up. People especially in their twenties commented on how much they miss the times back then and some even joked about certain topics only students in the 2000’s could understand. Aside from just songs, people also shared their favorite official sound tracks of movies such as ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic or television shows such as ‘Paradise’ from Boys Over Flowers that reminded them of their past. 

Stuck in the past myself, I realized this phenomenon was not so different from when my mother was crazy with the movie ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and when my father, who never liked watching television dramas fell in love with ‘Reply 1988’. Perhaps it is not the movie, song, or television show that people fall in love with but their memories and their past. It does not matter how old you are. Everyone has a past and a time that they long for. It is such nostalgia that even sometimes brings people together and brings people apart. 

They say Carpe Diem, Live in the moment, but why do people live in the past? Why can we never let go? I guess it is because while past is something we cannot control, it is the only thing we know. The future is sculptable yet unpredictable. Being taken away by the past from time to time is not a negative feeling but rather it is the happy memories that keeps us sane every single step we take forwards.

It is rather normal for high school seniors to miss the memories of the first two years of high school as the 3rd year is devastating and miserable for most students in Korea due to the amount of studying needed to be done. However, I never knew I would come to a state where I would say I actually miss the 3rd year of high school. Despite the hardships of studying, the happiness of talking and joking around with friends during break and on our way home from academies is something that cannot be bought.

In a café on a rainy Sunday, I am sitting here asked to freely write about any topic of my choice. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the jazz music, or maybe even the smell of coffee beans being grinded, but I just wanted to maybe trigger your nostalgic nerves (whoever is reading this) and make you think about where your gay memories are held. No structure, no complex writing skills, but just the trivial intention of sharing my sentiment with you.

As a teenager, we long for our childhood. As a college student, we long for our adolescence. As a business worker, we long for our college years. As a married couple, we long for our single years and as an old couple we miss being the young ones in love. Now you may have realized where I am going with this; every single moment of our lives was blissful and worth longing for. That is where the phrases come in. Carpe Diem, and Live in the Moment.

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