Nostalgia, Nostalgia

It's amazing how difficult things become when you're unused to them. I can remember things being VERY easy, or seemingly easy, when I was younger, but now that I try them as I've gotten older, it seems that they're much harder. I don't know if it's the simplicity, or the different outlook as an older person, but it just seems that old things are more difficult to deal with than newer things.

Take video games, for example. I can remember playing something when I was only seven or eight years old, say Super Mario, and it being really fun, engaging, and easy to do. I got so used to playing Super Mario that it was no longer difficult. It represented the best video game of the time, and since it was cutting edge, it was very easy to become engrossed in the game. I'd find myself playing the game over and over, perfecting my skills, and eventually I got to the point where I was quite good.

Trying to play Super Mario now that I'm older, however, seems to be much more difficult. The graphics are horrible, the controls are unresponsive, and it's very hard to even like the game, let alone find the time to be good at it. Modern video games are infinitely more complex and challenging than the first games, but it seems that I've become so accustomed to them that their complexity becomes easier to handle. What was once simple and enjoyable as a boy is now difficult to engage with, even for the sake of nostalgia.

I think this is true of many things that we may do for nostalgia's sake. We can usually think of things that were downright AMAZING in our youth, but now that we're older, they don't hold the same appeal. Nostalgia is a funny beast in this regard; it makes us want to do things that we know and love, but once we start to do them, we realize how much we've forsaken our "old" ways in favor of what's new and exciting.