Nostalgia
Moving to Texas has made me way more nostalgic that I ever was before.
I don't think it has anything to do with Texas, itself, but rather a paradigm shift in the my internalized concept of permanency. When I was at school, I knew that I would still have the opportunities to see my parents and reconnect with my old friends. In fact, there would have been little point in doing otherwise given the rigid collegiate vacation system.
Now it feels weird... kind of forced, since I now have to make time to see my friends and family. And even then, my friends are kind of scattered around, making it difficult to see absolutely everyone, even if I wanted to. The change would be even more stark, if I lived closer to home because the changes to life, as I had known it, would be so much more obvious and transparent. Belmont would no longer be the nostalgically static place that can exist only in the mind.
My life has changed so much since I "left" Belmont that the place itself and my memories of it don't seem real anymore. It feels more like something out of a story book than my own life. Memories also tend to fade with time, and it is nice to "refresh" them occasionally although it effectively warps the memory to conform with the present circumstances.
Whatever the future has in store for me, I doubt that there will be a place that will share the same niche in my memory with my idealization of Belmont.
I don't think it has anything to do with Texas, itself, but rather a paradigm shift in the my internalized concept of permanency. When I was at school, I knew that I would still have the opportunities to see my parents and reconnect with my old friends. In fact, there would have been little point in doing otherwise given the rigid collegiate vacation system.
Now it feels weird... kind of forced, since I now have to make time to see my friends and family. And even then, my friends are kind of scattered around, making it difficult to see absolutely everyone, even if I wanted to. The change would be even more stark, if I lived closer to home because the changes to life, as I had known it, would be so much more obvious and transparent. Belmont would no longer be the nostalgically static place that can exist only in the mind.
My life has changed so much since I "left" Belmont that the place itself and my memories of it don't seem real anymore. It feels more like something out of a story book than my own life. Memories also tend to fade with time, and it is nice to "refresh" them occasionally although it effectively warps the memory to conform with the present circumstances.
Whatever the future has in store for me, I doubt that there will be a place that will share the same niche in my memory with my idealization of Belmont.