Lesson of the Week: Nostalgia

I've enjoyed writing in this blog throughout the summer, though not all of my writings have been very substantive. To help me continue to write through the school year, I'm going to start doing "Lesson of the Week". Hopefully this will make my writing more consistent, and more interesting.

Lesson of the Week:

Often times I fall victim to feelings of nostalgia. I do it all the time, when I hear a song, or when I catch up with a friend, I begin to heavily focus on the past. For me these feelings are very difficult to deal with, especially when trying to discern whether the feelings are constructive or not. In my life there seems to be two types of nostalgia, healthy nostalgia, and destructive nostalgia. I believe that there is a distinct contrast between the two.

Healthy nostalgia is the sort of nostalgia that occurs when talking with an old friend. When we reflect on the past, we laugh, we talk, and we ask about what is happening in each others present affairs. Healthy nostalgia acts as a bridge between others, its a shared experience that can help build a present relationship. Destructive nostalgia is very different. Destructive looks upon the past as the end all and best of experiences. Destructive does not enhance our present context, as does healthy nostalgia, rather it destroys our present context, and it makes us covet our past selves.

This is a distinction that I realized when I watched an episode of “Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT!”. Their point was that overly nostalgic thoughts distort the past into our idealized version, and are a reflection of one's present unhappy circumstances. Looking into our past too much will destroy our present and we'll never be happy because we'll always want to go back to that place that only exists in our heads. I could wallow in past experiences for the rest of my life, constantly wishing I was somewhere else. Or I can take initiative and create new nostalgia with new experiences with other people. That's what I learned this week.

-Trav

I.O.Me

I slacked off for a week and now I have to write two blogs before August 31st to keep up with my summer resolution.

Well summer is winding down, only 3.5 more weeks and were back in the swing of things at Ohio State. However, between now and then there are a lot of things to happen, to finish, and to do.

1.) To finish - I have to finish my current internship at the student union. This will look like it
has for most of the summer, except when it's finished I'm back to my manual
labor job at the student union.

2.) To Happen 1 - I have the chance to play in a competition in Nashville with Peti Banfe, a
local Columbus artist. Were playing on September 19th, and I'm excited to
spend the weekend in Nashville.

To Happen 2 - There is always one time of the year that puts a smile on my face, The
Fulton County Fair. This is like a family reunion, I get to see people that I
never get to see at any other time. I always look foreword to seeing friends
from years ago.

3.) To do - I graduate in mid March of 2010 which is mere months away. I have to figure out
what I'm going to do after I graduate, it's nerve wrecking, but God has given me some
very good options, it's just a matter of which is the right one.

Well see how these events shape up in the next few weeks.

What's Next?

Exactly one week ago, I confirmed that I would be graduating from Ohio State one quarter earlier than expected. With a bachelors degree in Communication Technologies, as society would have it, I'm ready for a career, a wife, kids, grand kids, and death. What has sort of thrown me off is I never intended on graduating early. I planned on graduating in June, or maybe even in December of 2010, however, I will be graduating in March of 2010. Thus, 6 months from now I will be entering this so-called, “real world”.

I'm not sure how to deal with this new expectation. I have no plans for graduate school or a set career. Fortunately or unfortunately, I will have degree in Communication which is about as unspecified as it gets, so getting out there and getting experience is the next step, but I feel overwhelmed. Am I cut out to function in the professional world? Will I ever be happy with a job? These sorts of questions stress me out all the time. Although I don't know what my next step in life will be, I do know that I want to have a memorable experience before I enter the real world. A stutter-step before I put my best foot foreword. The cliché, is doing the backpacking through Europe. Something like that, or a trip out west, I don't know, but something cool before I have to learn how to tie a tie

What still confuses me is why I'm supposed to graduate early. To be honest, I have no idea how I'm able to graduate earlier than expected, so it's just sort of come as a shock to me. But I'm really hoping that God has something on the horizon for me either for a career, or something to do prior to my career that would be a memorable experience.

As stated in a couple of blogs ago, I'm submitting and waiting to what God might have for me in the future. A quote from “Mad Men” goes “I know you want everything the minute you want it, but sometimes its better to wait.” I don't know if I'm am ready to receive what ever is in store for me, or if I'm still in the waiting process. I'm trying to open to both.

Running Man.

I have recently become some what of a runner. I charge up my iPod, make a playlist, throw on my head band, lace up my shoes, and I'm off. Surprisingly I'm rather proud of my progress that I have made thus far, but it doesn't always come easy. I have a friend who chooses not to believe that life is like running a marathon, in some part I agree, but for this blog I'm going to disagree.

Here are just a few connections that I have made with running and life.

Goals-
When I run, I am obsessed with seeing how far I can go. I set a goal, and I try as hard as I can to reach that goal. The funny thing is, the goal is completely arbitrary. The goal is there to trick my brain into giving me the energy and will to make it that distance. I have no idea how far that goal is, or if the distance to that goal is significant at all, its just the goal, the light at the end of the tunnel.

This is sort of like my college life for me. I am in college simply because I told myself "I want a college degree", what for? I have no idea, but it was a goal, a distance to run. Now the interesting thing will be to look back. Because after I run, I always look on Google Maps to examine the significance of my running goal I set for myself, and to measure how far I ran. It will be interesting to look back on my days in college and see if the goal of getting a college degree from Ohio State is significant.

Rest-
There are times when I run when I just have to stop. Every part of me aches, my head swims, the sweat bleeds off my skin, and my lungs start to play catch-up.

There are times in life when we just need to stop. We have to let ourselves recuperate so that we can continue to run towards our goal. One might feel like a failure or lazy when they take a break, but if you don't, you'll never make it to the end.

Death-
When I run into traffic, there could be a car that runs a red light and kills me. That's sort of where the metaphor breaks down. However my point is, shit happens.

Walls-
When I run, I hit these barriers. My muscles tense up, my lungs breathe heavy, and my head begins to swim. I call these walls. They just sort of come randomly, but you can't stop when you hit them, you just have to keep on running. It sucks, it's hard, it's painful, but you just have to keep on running in order to break through them.

This is so much like life. We just enter these times in our lives when life just sucks. Problems and issues pile up on us and they cause us to want to stop running and give up. However, when I've entered such times, the only answer is to press on work through the pain and strain to try and come out the other side.

That's the cool thing about hitting walls. While it sucks to hit a wall and have to power through it, once you break through, your renewed and can run further and faster than before.


So there are my running analogies.