Because I have a story to tell and nothing to lose…
Here’s why I started this blog and all the reasons why I just might cry.
By now you know that the little girl in the funky orange glasses, Michael Jackson red “Beat It” jacket, pink pleather pants, shiny white Saturday Night Fever shoes, and a forehead only a mother could love – is me.
I’m Yanis – a writer, actor, curious world traveler, hopeless nostalgic, and lover of all things vintage.
My blog is a mix of all that.
Ever since I could write, I’ve been putting stories together. Some are fiction, some are true. Some read like a journal, others like imaginative rants. I’ve gone through life making mental notes of all things meaningful – moments ranging from beautiful to quirky, angsty to joyful, and debilitating to empowering. Life, thus far, has been quite a ride and I find myself turning to nostalgia to cope with the ups & downs.
In the past, nostalgia has gotten a bad rap and is commonly defined as “a bitter-sweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past; the condition of being homesick.” In the 17th century it was an official medical term used to describe the uneasiness and angst that Swiss mercenaries felt as they fought in countries far away from home. It was once considered a disease – a form of melancholia – which could, on rare occasions, even result in death! (I’m just saying…) It has been said that there are two types of nostalgia.
- Historic Nostalgia: Longing for a particular time period or era that you’ve never experienced…like constantly daydreaming about what it’s like to live in Paris in the 1920s.
- Personal Nostalgia: Longing after a particular time that you’ve already experienced…like reliving your glorious college years.
I happen to suffer from both but, for the most part, it’s been a really good thing.
I’ll tell you more about it as we go along…how you too can use nostalgia to your advantage when life isn’t its rosiest. But one thing I can’t promise you is a cookie-cutter blog. If I can coolly show up to the park in a Michael Jackson jacket and pink pleather pants, I can’t be trusted to deliver anything in a straight-laced manner.
What I can tell you, is to expect all things creative, curious, and random.
I want to go on a journey…and I don’t want to go alone. I want to share my stories with you because I’m a writer and that’s what we do. I want you to get to know me and I, you. Together, we’ll muse about people, places, and things that once were, in history and in our own lives. And we’ll daydream about all the things that could have been had we lived in times past or as different people. And then as we navigate the present and the future, we’ll realize we’re right where we’re supposed to be.
I must warn you though, the actor in me will always quote my favorite movies and I’ll exhibit a bit of flair for the dramatic.
We’ll talk childhood memories and about the past, fully understanding that with it will come some things we wish we didn’t remember.
We’ll travel and collect neat & funky relics, if only to serve as a reminder that a whole world exists outside of the cosmos that is my tiny one bedroom apartment.
During our travels, we’ll break all the rules and talk to strangers…people with stories, interesting & different ones, and we’ll dare each other to walk a mile in their shoes.
We’ll record all things curious in photographs and videotape all the you had to be there moments so that others can feel as though they were.
This is what I want for us: to live, to love, to understand, and in the midst of it all, to find adventure. American author Wilferd A. Peterson wrote “Go forth seeking adventure. Open your eyes, your mind, your heart, your spirit, and you’ll find adventure everywhere.”
Maybe that’s why I’m writing this blog…hoping that with each month or year that passes, if we’re still together, it will continue to take us to new places and introduce us to people we wouldn’t have met otherwise. Whatever comes our way, whether good or bad, we will accept it here for what it is – another stop in this journey, another memory, another chance to take a photograph.
I promise you it’ll be fun!
We will laugh and I, the emotional sap that I am, will most likely cry at some point.
I can’t help it – I’m a HOPELESS NOSTALGIC.
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2 Comments
Sounds like a fun adventure! Many times when things in the present seem overwhelming, I think of simpler times, like having hot Cortes chocolate with cubes of cheddar cheese waiting to be discovered in the bottom of the mug while I dipped crackers in the sweet, dark comforting liquid that warmed my insides physically and emotionally. And of course, there was Polly, but that is a story for another day–Thanks for inviting us on this exciting journey and letting us all know we are not the only ones who miss those days gone by!
Mmm…Chocolate. That sounds good! Feel free to tell us about Polly anytime. Thanks for coming along!