If melancholy were a human being, she would definitely be a good friend to all of us. She would be somehow likeable, a welcome guest at every festival and definitely at the start of birthday parties with excessive alcohol consumption. We would invite her to share our bed with us when our thoughts exceed our head volume and we can’t cope with photo album memories at all. And we’d know that whether it’s those moments when our heads want to hit the pause button or those moments we didn’t put on our must-do list, that one friend is always there.
When life rummages in the box of feelings
We are premium members of Gen-Y. We constantly pay attention to what we experience and how we feel about it. We are sad, angry, happy and content – and have a talent for analyzing our sensations inexhaustibly and from all sides. But melancholy blows us away when it walks around the corner with all its power every now and then. We are moved and overwhelmed. We are sometimes grateful and somehow unsatisfied. We are the main protagonist of a state of mind that is just freaking hard to describe. That’s why we don’t even keep trying. Here are the 32 moments when we all get melancholy.
1
When pictures of our ex-partner fall into our hands
Whenever we can’t use emotional regression at all, a picture of our ex-partner falls into our hands. Just far enough past the breakup that we enjoy being single again, but with our hearts still somehow tied, these testimonies from another time almost always lead to melancholy knocking on the door.
2
When song lyrics speak to us from the soul
As if it were not enough that some melodies push open the abysses of our emotional world without any problems, the lyrics then of course fit our lives one to one. As if the songwriter had no ideas of his own and just plundered our thoughts.
3
When we look back on a successful festival summer
Rain, sleet, sub-zero temperatures – when autumn arrives, we like to remember the warm summer days. And we remember the hours when we stood in the festival crowd with shorts and wet sweaty tops and cheered for our favorite act.
4
For movies where our diary could be the script
When we have the feeling that films are telling us about our own lives, melancholy can set in. This is also due to the fact that the actors are generally better looking than we are when we can’t cope with life at all.
5
When we feel the beat while celebrating
Sometimes it doesn’t take more than a little alcohol and a good beat to roll out the red carpet for melancholy.
6
At weddings*
*on which we would have liked not just to be the 87th unimportant guest, but to have swapped places with the main acts. Will it be the same for us, please?
7
When we drive through our hometown
There are many reasons to fledge. One of the reasons: You learn how nice it is to come back. The new city is exciting and somehow makes us grow. But with every kilometer that separates us from home, we learn to appreciate more the moment when we come home again.
8
When our grandparents tell us about their past
Touched and overwhelmed, we sometimes sit there and listen to what grandma and grandpa are telling us. How different the world was without the Internet, how wonderful communication was without cell phones. And every now and then we catch ourselves thinking that we would have liked to experience a few moments of that past.
9
When we visit places that we associate with our past love
No matter if it’s our favorite café or the Ikea we used to visit only with our ex-partner. Places we only know with this one person at our side sometimes make us damn melancholic.
10
When we are drunk and get compliments
When the level rises, the melancholic inhibition threshold drops. If we then receive a compliment that we hadn’t expected, we’re quickly swept off our feet.
11
When we remember that our club used to be first league
Sad but true. Some clubs used to be at the top and have sunk pretty low.
12
With music we associate with memory
If there were the one ultimate combination that plays into the cards of melancholy, it would be the combination of memory and music. There is not much that touches us like certain music and not much that throws us off track like memory.
13
When we remember the moment we had the Abi in our pocket
Free, unbound and like kings of the world we felt the moment we put the last final exam on the teacher’s desk and could already hear our buddies outside opening the vodka bottles. It was awesome!
14
When we look at the starry sky
The city lights drive away the stars. So out into the field and enjoy what definitely makes us melancholy on a picnic blanket and with the best person in our arms.
15
When we discover the world and places change us
During a trip, pretty much every moment has the potential to make us feel melancholy. Especially when we meet people who have a lasting effect on us and get to know places that speak to us from the soul.
16
When we find old photo folders on the PC
Every time we want to update our PC, the moment comes when we find lost photo folders again. All of a sudden there are pictures that we had long forgotten. Smiling, we then click for hours through the flood of images and let ourselves drift with melancholy.
17
When older people hold hands on the street
We become melancholic because we are moved by what we see and because we hope that this feeling will be granted to us later.
18
When your date suddenly plays your favorite song
Soul mate is something that we don’t find often. Probably not more than once in a lifetime. But when you’re sitting in the car with your date and your favorite song is playing without your intervention, that’s a good start.
19
When we feel we have accomplished something on our own
We don’t always manage to be proud of ourselves. Self-doubt is easier. But when we can’t help but admit that we’ve done our job well, we may find ourselves defenselessly exposed to melancholy.
20
When we find our diary again
In no other place are we as honest as in our diary. We write down what moves us and poop about what upsets us. We rarely turn back the pages. When we do, we are usually overwhelmed by what we read.
21
When Germany becomes world champion
1954, 1974, 1990, 2014 – four times we were World Champions and four times Germany’s emotionality knew no bounds. Well, most of us can probably only look back on one or two World Cups. But the feeling was outstanding, wasn’t it?
22
When people are nicer than we expected them to be
Prejudices are judgments that one makes hastily. If this assessment is not confirmed, we are somehow indignant at ourselves but happy that there are nice people after all.
23
At sunsets
Twilight, bright colors, falling darkness – sunsets rightly have a place on this list.
24
When someone praises something about us that we perceive as a weakness
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Mainly weaknesses – at least that’s what we think. But every now and then people save our day, actually our whole month, when they praise something about us that we take as a weakness.
25
When our series hero dies
Are we sad. And melancholy. And have to realize that our life actually has little meaning anymore.
26
When you realize how nice it is to have siblings
Siblings are friends who are simply given to us. Even if the feeling of hatred trumps the melancholic feeling of happiness now and then, we are still glad to have them.
27
When we notice that our world is still unjust
2016. We can fly into space without any problems. We can express our mood with silly emojis and know 2.7 million decimal places of the number Pi. But our world is still not fair.
28
When we think we have found the great love
The feeling of having found someone who is just somehow a bit cooler than all the rest before makes us melancholy – and quite happy.
29
When we are reminded that some great people are no longer around
We are touched by many moments that make us happy. But especially by the moments when we are just sad. The memory of the people who have enriched our lives and left a gap stings.
30
When it’s summer and the radio man plays our favorite song
When the sun is burning down on the roof of the car and we’re listening to the radio on the way to the quarry pond at an interior temperature of 38 degrees, there’s only one moment that could top it: The radio man plays our favorite song.
31
When it rains
“Whenever it rains I have to think of you,” Max Herre croons into A-N-N-A’s ear. We can understand it.
32
When friends tell us stories we had already forgotten
Storytelling has to be learned. But there’s always that one person in the group who, with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, tells stories that no one else had in mind.
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