My Nostalgic Lockdown
art: @inkedandprettys
As we are often being told, this past year has truly been one of unprecedented events. Between unexpected lockdowns to distressing news coverage to job losses, much of our everyday stability has been snatched away from us. So, it’s little wonder that the past became a favourite source of solace for a lot of us. We longed for an escape, a look back on more innocent times when our biggest worries were what sleepover invites we’d received, and remembering our PE kit for school. Many of us turned to old films, music and books to ease the struggle of the pandemic, to feel once again the safety of the mundane and the predictable.
Over the first lockdown, suffering with a chronic pain flare up and panicking over looming A-level results, I began to search for solace in my childhood favourites. Signing up to the official Moomin fan club and cracking out my Moomins on the Riviera DVD at 19 isn’t exactly rock and roll, but it provided me with some of the comfort I desperately needed when my world, and the world around me, became out of my control. Revisiting my favourite stories and fantasy lands was truly bittersweet – I was finally given the space to reflect on the adult world I was becoming scarily close to entering.
I have always been a nostalgic person, but this felt different. My dreams became consumed with vivid memories of childhood houses and gardens, bright colours and images I had presumed were long lost. This was a slower, lockdown pace of life, and I was living in the gap between major parts of my life. My waking life became intermingled with the fluid landscapes of my dreams; it was strangely cathartic, and allowed me space to process events and truly breathe.
My new favourite hobby became rewatching all of the Studio Ghibli films, involving plots and characters which are pretty much the definition of wholesome. When Marnie Was There, a film about a friendship in a sleepy countryside town, became an almost nightly viewing for me, as it reminded me so much of the close friend I first watched it with. I even started listening to the film soundtracks when cleaning, reading or going to sleep. The gentle, sleepy energy of these films seemed to calm my anxious brain in a way which nothing else could whilst there was a once in a generation pandemic turning the tides just outside my window.
And over the second lockdown, my flatmate and I looked forward to rewatching the Harry Potter films on nights the world was getting a bit too much. University is intense at the best of times, but factor in a pandemic, and it’s safe to say that we were in need of something soothing to watch. There’s something innately calming about knowing what’s going to happen at the end of a film. The trials and tribulations the characters went through were shrouded by the safe knowledge that we knew they always got their happy endings. Sat in our uni rooms with our hot chocolates, practically knowing the scripts off by heart, it felt like everything was going to be okay.
Nostalgic pastimes have helped me to cope with the unbelievable difficulty of managing lockdown, fear and setbacks this year. When the present is terrifying, and the future is still so uncertain, the past offers a world of safety and solace. Fantasy, music, magic and memories are always there to dip into when the world gets scary, and there’s certainly no shame in finding the things that will bring you joy in a tumultuous time.
by Millicent Stott (Staff Opinions Writer)
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