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
Huryk Unlimited 