At first this women seemed to be rambling and my first impression was that this was something I wasn’t necessarily going to enjoy. However as I read on, I began to see a theme I could relate to and her words became more enjoyable. I’ve never heard of the Sweet Valley series but as a younger girl I remember reading books that seem to have been very similar, not a series but a set of individual stories all written by the same author. I remember wanting so bad to look the way these girls looked and to live the lives they lived. These stories, which share the same captivating themes of juicy drama and idealistic characters and settings, bring me a nostalgia just as Gay described the Sweet Valley series bringing her. Gay states that it is simply “human, to long for the past” and that “Nostalgia is powerful.” Growing up, kids are constantly reminded of the ideas and expectations of everyone around them. Being able to escape that pressure truly a treat. It is in how we do that when we are young that nostalgia is created for the future. We’re all someone’s want-to-be on some level but that decreases with age. However the admiration of whatever is was we originally yearned to be so bad becomes more of an appreciation. The nostalgia is the feeling of passion and the happiness we found in the escape to our imaginations of who or what we wanted to be. As time passes though, we become more excepting and loving of who we are and become our own want-to-be’s. I found myself indulged in Gay’s story of her retreat back to her past.
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