One morning, I woke up from a vivid dream in which I had eaten a kind of food I loved when I was in China. It was sold by a small movable cart, and the seller would put a spoonful of sweet rice in a bowl covered with a tiny plastic bag. He added cooked shredded carrots, potatoes, pork, kelp, fish mint, and a spoonful of special spicy sauce. Then, he covered it with another spoonful of sweet rice and finally squeezed the plastic bag into a ball. When I bit into it, a taste filled my mouth immediately, mixing sweet, sour, spicy, sticky, and fresh crispy veggies. The feeling of that dream stayed with me for the whole day, and I couldn’t stop thinking about those days when I was in college in China. In the mornings, my friends and I would go to the school gate to buy that food. It was one of the happiest and most memorable moments of my college life.

Last year, my husband’s grandma held a family reunion in Wisconsin. As we drove across a bridge, we stopped on the road alongside a big farm covered with corn and saw many raspberries hanging from the branches on one side of the road. In that moment, I felt like I was back in my hometown, on our own land where my mom and dad were planting corn and my brothers and I were picking raspberries. Although that feeling didn’t last long, it gave me the illusion that I had returned to my youth with my family in China.

Sometimes, when I listen to an old song or see a fragment of an old movie, I am transported back to a long-lost time. Memories flash so vividly that I can still feel the exact emotions I had when I first heard the song or watched the film. Occasionally, we may encounter someone unfamiliar who resembles an old friend we have lost contact with for a long time, and we can’t help but feel a sense of familiarity towards the stranger, as if they were our old friend.

All of these situations are related to “nostalgia” – a feeling of recalling the past, the places we have lived, or the happy moments we have experienced. Every person experiences nostalgia – missing old times, old friends, hometown, or home-cooked food. Unlike homesickness, which can cause depression and illness, nostalgia may make us feel a little lost, but it also has positive influences. For me, nostalgia inspires me to write. When I had that dream, I couldn’t help but write down what I had dreamed, my feelings, and my thoughts.

Nostalgia reminds us to cherish every day because we know that today will become a nostalgic memory in the future. It encourages us to cherish our family and friends, even if they are not physically present with us. We can reach out to them and let them know that we miss and love them. Currently, nostalgia is the biggest motivation for me to study hard and find a better job, so that I can save enough money to fly back to China to see my old friends, be with my family, savor Chinese food, and visit the places that have been lingering in my dreams!