Issue 3: Nostalgia
As humans, we’re seemingly destined to move forward, beyond the barriers that limit our potential to achieve the impossible. Through our limitless drive and ambition, we often dream about the future we craft while mindlessly wondering about the many possibilities and new facets of reality that we’ll encounter soon. At times, we reject the importance of the things that transformed us, as our lives become increasingly entangled with newfound responsibilities. Have you reminisced of the life you once lived? Has there been a time which you desperately longed to go back to, even for a mere second?
The contemporary phrase “good old days” perfectly describes these intricate, wondrous sentiments behind nostalgia, which is the unexplainable, warm affinity we have for places, people, or objects of personal relevance. Familiar rhythmic music from long-gone eras that compels us to cry over the loss of our beloved. Vintage-styled advertisements of long-lost beverages, tucked in the corners of our labyrinth-like memory lane. A wooden cottage, shyly hiding amidst redwood forests whose scent reminds us of grandpa. Pride in ambling down the stage to claim an award whilst thunderous applause deafens the auditorium. The excitement in grooving to the beat, knowing that the road ahead promises adventure and eclectic tomorrows.
It could even be oddly specific, general and broad, or somewhere in between. Ethereal scent of hot cocoa and a side of roasted marshmallows in your suburb’s Christmas marketplace. The glorious years when a leader we’ve supported through their rigorous campaigns led our nation. Warming hugs from our mother, a cup of herbal tea, and her soothing voice that chronicles dreamy fairy tales and frightful spooks. These are various manifestations of nostalgia that we see everyday. These bittersweet glimpses of the past remind us of who we once were, where we were, or perhaps what we might have had.
Mind Over Matter’s third issue will discover remembrance, reflections, departures, and nostalgia, the mysterious force that binds us together to a common emotional state of being. What does it precisely mean to you? Have you encountered this strange feeling? If so, what are you nostalgic over and why? To commemorate new beginnings and oddities, let’s take a look back to the past and appreciate our journey thus far through your works! Send us your articles, essays, photographs, artworks, illustrations, paintings, sculptures, or anything nostalgic. All submissions should follow our guidelines as listed on our website, and must be sent to mindmattercollective@gmail.com from November 1 - December 15, 2020.
Keywords: nostalgia, sentimentality, memories, past, petrichor, timelapse, recollection, reflection, homesick, reminiscence, remembrance, childhood, longing, yearn, pining, melancholy, saudade, ode, goodbye
