Today, please welcome Julia McKee (‘18), who will be writing for us on the 29th of each month. Julia is a 2018 graduate and studied English literature and business marketing during her time at Calvin. A Chicagoland native, she now resides in Grand Rapids, MI and works as a brand and marketing officer. She spends her free time reading fantasy novels, sweating in her gym’s sauna, renovating her almost 100-year-old house, and crafting according to her current creative fixation.
One thing adults don’t prepare young people for is the jarring realization that you’ve lived long enough to see your old clothes, hairstyles, and even technology come back into fashion. Being just south of thirty, I feel far too young to bear witness to such things.
A decade I truly thought we were leaving in the past—the 2000s—is back with full force. They’ve revived babydoll tops, low-rise jeans, and glittered body spray, but thankfully not the orange foundation, aggressively nude lips, or the tanning-bed-induced heart sticker tan lines.
Not only do today’s pop stars sound like ours, but I’ve also seen iPods go for well over asking on secondhand websites. Young people are reaching for the life many of us had growing up, one that included a flip phone in one pocket and 1,000 illegally downloaded songs on your hot pink iPod Nano in the other. It’s not just iPods—between vinyl sales and the resurgence of the dumb phone, the kids are making one thing clear: they’re craving simplicity.
The prime example of this is the retreat back to digital cameras. Honestly, life just looks a little better in flash photography. The washed-out light, the silly poses, and the inability to edit bring a sense of authenticity back to social media that is currently clouded by filters and Photoshop. What teens today are calling “photo dumps” reminds me of my sister posting 200 photos after the most basic suburban night out to one single Facebook album called “friendzzz 9.25”.
It’s a strange thing to feel internally seventeen while being constantly reminded that you’re not as young as you feel. I now know exactly how my mom felt when we started wearing bell bottoms again. It’s like watching your teenage years through a snow globe. It’s right in front of you, but a thick layer of glass separates the watchers from the participants.
I know right now there’s a forty-year-old reading this rolling their eyes since thirty is young, and I’m guilty of the same thing. I do have a record player, after all. We have to recognize the pattern. We all go through this not because kids want to mimic us, but because we all crave what we believe the prior generation had: a childhood that looked more like a childhood. Less constant connection, more pen on paper, and devices that served a single purpose. Maybe that’s the point of nostalgia: it’s not about imitation, it’s about longing.
As young Millennials and older Gen Zs become parents, this is something we can keep in mind. Kids don’t want a cell phone in fifth grade—well, maybe they do, but their later behaviors (and the data) suggest otherwise. We can provide them with the childhood they’ll inevitably end up yearning for in their teen years. We can make sure they feel socially connected without the constant connection. We can simplify their lives so they have more time to live untethered from endless scrolling. Or maybe we can just enjoy shaking the snow globe, then set it high on a shelf to treasure the scenes we were lucky to live once before.
Julia is a 2018 graduate and studied English literature and business marketing during her time at Calvin. A Chicagoland native, she now resides in Grand Rapids, MI and works as a brand and marketing officer. She spends her free time reading fantasy novels, sweating in her gym’s sauna, renovating her almost 100-year-old house, and crafting according to her current creative fixation.
