25+ 90s Kid Nostalgia Pics To Take You Back

In the final episode of the first season of Mad Men, Don Draper explains that the word "nostalgia" comes from the Greek phrase "pain from an old wound." It's a powerful moment in the series, and that definition of nostalgia has stayed with me for a long time. Because there is something painful about nostalgia, it's the feeling that we can never quite return to the thing that we wish to return to. It's a world that is gone from us, and no matter how hard we chase it, it's not coming back. But it's important to yearn for anyway. Because it can help us understand our own values. If we never know what we're missing, then how do we know what to look for? It goes with that other classic phrase, "those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it." We have to be conscious of what came before us. 

This is part of the reason why we love to look back on our childhoods. It wasn't that our childhoods were all that; there was plenty that we're glad to be rid of. But the good parts of it remind us of what we're looking for now. The hours we used to spend playing with our neighbors, with no particular end goal in mind. The time we spent flipping through magazines, imagining what our lives would look like as adults. The rush of joy we'd experience when our favorite Sunday morning cartoon would come on. These are all things we can strive for now.