Avery Lo: Searching For Happiness

Avery Lo shares about how nostalgia brought her back to a place of joy.

There was a time when happiness came easily, when I was content with who I was. As a kid, weekends meant disappearing for hours in my room. My table would fill with unfinished crafts and notebooks filled with diary entries. I didn’t think much about it, I just knew that when I was surrounded by the things I loved, I felt at peace. But as I grew older, that feeling faded into the past.

Weekends were no longer exciting, but filled with recovery. Growing up in the Bay Area, it felt as if everyone around had a plan. People took classes that they actually enjoyed and knew they might pursue. Success felt expected here. You were meant to know what you wanted early and chase the opportunities. And I hated that I couldn’t.

While everyone ran ahead to chase their dreams, I was stuck on the starting line. It was embarrassing. And maybe that’s why, one afternoon, I found myself looking at my childhood picture albums, hoping I would find an answer. 

In every photo, I looked happier. And the more I flipped through, the more I realized how much I missed that version of myself. So, the next weekend I pulled out the dusty box hidden in my closet, filled with papers and half-used notebooks. 

I opened my diary, with the last entry being a message asking my future self how life was going. I started with that, and I couldn’t stop writing. Slowly, the crafts began to form again, imperfect but comforting. 

By the end of the day, my room was messy again. Papers everywhere and pens scattered across the table. In that exact moment, I realized that the most important thing wasn’t the crafts I created. It was that I had finally found a way to be myself. Maybe nostalgia isn’t just about missing the past. Maybe sometimes it helps us remember who we are. With a Perspective, I’m Avery Lo.

Avery Lo is a sophomore in high school. In her free time, she enjoys listening to crime podcasts and sleeping in.