Have you ever looked at old pictures of yourself and thought, "gosh things were good"?

Have you ever stood in the moment, in some corridor at school or on a hillside overlooking the ocean with small grits of dust between your toes and thought, "Wow, I wish I could feel this way forever"?

Have you ever smelt a new smell and known that you will forever remember this time, good or bad, simply because of the nostalgic association you unconsciously will make between that new smell and what you're experiencing?

Have you ever smelt an old smell, like warm blooming jasmine or the pungent weeds of summer, or a girlfriend's cologne, or the sweat of the skin on your shoulders, or the rich wind that blows across a meadow in some desolate valley on a mountain range, and been brought back to a time of the past that you will remember with a yearning smile forever?

Have you ever savored the smell of smoke from a wildfire? Have you felt so free and sure that you knew the summer would last forever and nothing could make you go back?

There was a time we were completely, fancy-free. We ate and slept and played and worked and nothing mattered. Pain was of no consequence because we knew we would heal. Risk was menial, days were long and summers longer. Dreams weren't dreams, they were truths and we breathed and laughed and sang them into existence. People looked down on you because you were happy, others looked up. And since nothing ever changes, no matter how old we get or blinded we become by society, it's all still the same. We're still right in it.

We don't reminisce about the time we were most sensible or the path we took that was the most normal. We're awestruck by the days we spent doing things we never thought possible but did them anyway. Those are the times we remember forever.