34 Comments

that last line is heartbreaking and also so very comforting

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i love you and i love this essay

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literally the reason why i started writing personal essays i love u

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UGH. As a fellow TCK/eight-schools-and-boarding-school graduate, this is the realest and most beautiful thing. Thank you for this.

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omg we're almost the exact same - thank you for reading!

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this is such a gorgeous essay, i love you endlessly

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i love you <3

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ELLE YOU ARE SO CUTE omg

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i only knew how to smile big when i was a baby omg

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This is really timely because I just wrote a piece about my own nostalgia & growing up. Albeit, in a lot less beautiful words. I also moved a whole lot in my life. By the time I was 14 I had never spent more than two years in one house. I have often thought about how it would be to have one home to go back to, but I've also come to terms with having my memories scattered at different places and learned to love each one.

I love the lines: "Rather than a physical house you can go home to, time and again, you go home to everyone who you have ever loved and who has loved you. You become your own home and a museum of every moment you hold precious in your life." It's very true.

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the way you write is a reflection of the love in your life and i am so happy you are surrounded by people who cherish you. this was so lovely to read i couldn’t stop myself from tearing up!

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This is so gorgeous and evocative! I had the same iPod Nano (with just about the same discography) and your description of it unlocked so many memories 🩷

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This was really amazing and you talked about Hiraeth; I recommend you check out André Aciman's book Homo Irrealis. It's a similar idea, that which addresses longing for a place or something you never had but somehow always dreamed of possessing. Nostalgia is such a strange thing!

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Woww, i am so happy that i find you through a post on instagram. Now, favourite part of my day is when i read these postcards and feel something. You are a beautiful human being.

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This was so beautiful to read, you capture so many things that I feel I am unable to articulate. When I read those words I feel a deep resonance, as if I am reading what is etched in my own heart. Loved this! Thank you so much for sharing.

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I still feel jealousy when I watch my current friends go back home to their childhood, same-school-until-university friends. I went to 9 or so schools (no more than 2 years at a time) before going to boarding. I have so many faded memories of first days and friends I made throughout my childhood, it aches to think about sometimes. thank you so much for writing this, it was so cathartic to read 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

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so beautiful! thank you for sharing the word "hiraeth," i relate to it so deeply as well <3

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This is so gorgeous and moving. I love the way you see your life, and how much care you’ve taken to write about your little souvenir shop of nostalgia. It’s so comforting that some of our nostalgia souvenirs are the same! Thank you for putting such beautiful words to nostalgic feelings that often go undescribed.

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I've also gone to way too many schools (inc. boarding school) and moved between countries so this hit hard - I relate so deeply to being jealous of friends who have lived in the same house their whole life and always have somewhere definite to come back to and say they're from

thank you for writing this <3

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Nostalgia is like an ache, isn't it?

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