Old Soul in a Modern World Tatiana Garnett

I have the soul of a 74 year old grandmother. I used to be ashamed to say it, because what kind of teenager wants to openly admit she enjoys spending time in retirement homes. But, there’s no use in masking the age of my soul any longer. I like old music, old films, old social etiquette, even old people. I sing Frank Sinatra lyrics when I’m nervous, I send postcards to loved ones when I travel, and James Dean is the love of my life. I possess this genuine irresistible magnetism to the past; and it’s taken me eighteen years of my life to be proud to admit it.

There is a reason my soul parallels the one of a grandmother’s. I didn’t just wake up one day and decide that I prefer not to like anything popular from the 21st century. My infatuation with old music and films comes from the genuine nostalgia they bring me for times I never knew. I wasn’t alive in the 50’s and yet whenever I hear Ritchie Valens’s sweet voice I can’t help but feel a sentimental longing for that time period. I can never sit through The Breakfast Club without wanting to be a teenager from the 80’s. It may seem impossible to feel nostalgia for a time I never experienced, but I do. It’s there, it’s peculiar, and I love it.

I am fascinated by old objects and...