I am a Breathing Time Machine

it’s past midnight and im hysterically laughing and then thIS-

I'm not talking about, like, the "I was born in the wrong generation" sort of attitude, although that's sort of adjacent to it.

What I mean is a sort of nostalgia for something that, culturally, you expected to experience, or even felt entitled to experience. Something that very likely your ancestors experienced, whether it is your recent ancestors like your parents and grandparents, or your distant ancestors. Something that you were denied because of something such as poverty, family issues, oppression, world affairs, war, or even just rapid cultural change.

I think it's a feeling that's very common in my generation, especially due to the state of the world right now.

And if you're wondering, no, it is not yearning. Yearning is a desire to gain something, oftentimes something that is unlikely or impossible to happen. It's a want for more.

And it's not regret, either. Because regret would imply that you had any sort of power over the situation to begin with.