Main Entry: nos·tal·gia
Pronunciation: nä-'stal-j&, n&- also no-, nO-; n&-'stäl-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek nostos return home + New Latin -algia; akin to Greek neisthai to return, Old English genesan to survive, Sanskrit nasate he approaches
1 : the state of being homesick : HOMESICKNESS
2 : a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also : something that evokes nostalgia
– nos·tal·gic   /-jik/ adjective or noun
– nos·tal·gi·cal·ly   /-ji-k(&-)lE/ adverb

I miss the days when friends were all that mattered. When winning that match and inside jokes from this club match or that one kept you alive during 3 long days of tennis or a nine hour car ride home from a tournament.

Looking back at old tennis club pictures and my twenty year old self, I think "Damn, we had fun." There’s a picture of Jared trying to grab Kristin’s butt in Arby’s. There’s a picture of Juan P. playing tennis with a towel turban on his head. There’s little freshman Jess on her first tennis club away trip, when she road in a car with Wheeler and 3 stinky guys in the back seat, and we went to Einstein’s to pick up bagels for everyone. Pete and Carlo at one of the first Tuesday night practices.

Are we so afraid to move into the future because the past was so much fun? And if the past was so much fun, then shouldn’t the future be also? I just think that the hilarity of it all, the jokes and the teasing, the feeling of belonging to something that mattered, and being with people who you felt accepted you, was so easy then. We all saw each other on a regular basis, and now, I’m lucky to see each of my friends seperately a few times a month. I miss the togetherness, I miss being part of a group. It’s not fair that people come in and out of your life, make memories, and are gone. I never realized I was so lucky when I was in college, to have so much freedom and no real responsibilities.