Nostalgia is a beautiful liar

Heather Valentine

2 min read

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Just now

What we choose to remember and what we choose to forget

Part 2 of the “Yesterday / Today” Trilogy — reflections on time, memory, and learning to live in the present.

A reflection on why we miss things that never were…

Is nostalgia, friend or foe?

It paints our memories in softer colors, edits out the sharp edges, and convinces us that the past was simpler — better — safer.

But that’s not always true.

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Science calls memory “malleable” — it bends and reshapes itself over time. We remember fragments, then fill in the blanks. Our minds are storytellers, not record keepers.

That’s why even the hardest seasons can feel sweet in hindsight. Time blurs the pain and sharpens the glow.

The 1950s are often remembered as the American dream — white picket fences, picture-perfect families, clean-cut and obedient. But behind those images lived segregation, nuclear fear, and gender roles that suffocated half the population.

The stories we tell about the past say more about what we wish were true than what ever was.

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Nostalgia can be a comfort, but it can also be a trap. It’s okay to visit the past — just don’t live there. Let it remind you of how easily we forget — not convince you that we’ve lost something sacred we never truly had.

Yesterday is now only a memory of the past..

Read Part 1 of the “Yesterday / Today” Trilogy