Month: May 2026

Blogpost, self-reliance

On The Move… Again

Pete Huryk

I haven’t counted the actual number in a while, but since leaving home after high school, I’ve moved more than twenty times. Some of those are front-loaded because I lived in around eight different places during my college years — dorm rooms, apartments, roommates that didn’t work out, and all the rest.

This move feels different though.

This time, I’m moving in with my fiancée, who already has a fully furnished house. So a lot of my stuff simply “isn’t making the trip.” In the past, moving meant a truck, boxes, and a Herculean amount of lifting. This time it’s more of a sifting process — deciding what stays, what goes, and what was only being carried around because I never stopped to question it.

Honestly, that feels like a pretty fitting metaphor for this moment in life.

There’s always this belief that a move is going to change something. A new town, new surroundings, new people, a fresh start. Sometimes we convince ourselves that the scenery is the problem. Sometimes we think another person is the problem. Sometimes we quietly hope geography alone can fix things internally.

But one thing always makes the trip with you.

You.

No matter where you go, you still bring your habits, your perspective, your baggage, your fears, your routines, and your unresolved stuff along for the ride. Some of that is good. Some of it probably needs to be left on the curb.

As I’ve been sorting through possessions, I’ve also been trying to pay attention to the things inside myself that probably shouldn’t make this move either. Old frustrations. Relationships that only drain energy. Bad habits that should have been discarded years ago. Thought patterns that have overstayed their welcome.

The hard part is that change sounds a lot easier than it feels.

Even when we know something needs to change, actually doing it usually comes with discomfort. Sometimes it means taking an honest look at parts of yourself that you’ve spent years avoiding. Sometimes it means admitting that some of the weight you’re carrying isn’t circumstance at all — it’s familiarity. Even unhealthy things can become comfortable if you’ve carried them long enough.

At the same time, there’s something hopeful about that realization too.

You already know what the status quo feels like. You already know where your current habits, patterns, and choices lead. Maybe most of it is working great and only needs a few small adjustments. That’s a good thing. But if deeper change is needed, eventually you have to decide whether carrying the same version of yourself forward is easier than finally letting some things go.

Boxes, furniture, regrets, grudges, excuses — eventually you realize not everything needs to make the trip.

See you down the road.

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

Prostalgia – A Word We Need

Pete Huryk

It’s not a real word. I made it up.

But then again, all words are made up. At some point, someone says something new. If enough people adopt it, it sticks. Sometimes we recycle old words and give them new meaning—like when “phat” had its moment in the 90s. Those trends come and go. Language, like everything else, moves in cycles.

That’s exactly why we need prostalgia.

Nostalgia is the bittersweet feeling of remembering something that no longer exists. A time, a place, a version of life that we can’t return to. And that part is true—time only moves one direction. There’s no going back.

But the instinct behind nostalgia isn’t wrong.

Because not everything we miss is actually gone.

Some things weren’t taken from us by time. We let them go. And more importantly, we could choose to bring them back.

I’m not talking about buying vinyl records to recreate a music scene that has already passed. Some things do belong to their era. But others—arguably the most important ones—don’t.

Neighbors looking out for one another.
Hard work being an accepted part of life.
Families acting like they matter.
Friends being people that connect with, even without wifi.
Cooking as a basic life skill instead of a lost art.

These aren’t relics. They’re choices.

Yes, progress matters. Rejecting new ideas and technology outright is a losing game. But somewhere along the way, there was a trade that no one consciously agreed to. In gaining convenience, speed, and efficiency, we gave up parts of what made life feel human.

The past wasn’t perfect. Not even close. It was filled with flaws, blind spots, and mistakes we shouldn’t repeat.

But it also held onto things we shouldn’t have let go.

And that’s where prostalgia comes in.

Not a longing for the past—but a decision.

A decision to reclaim what was good, to reintroduce it into the present, and to carry it forward.

Prostalgia: the intentional revival of ideas and practices from the past—not because they are old, but because they are worth keeping.

The future is coming. What are you taking with you?

Pete