When I was reading the excerpt from Marcel Proust’s Time Regained, one major point of his work stuck out to me. He stated that we essentially find satisfaction in getting back to where we started after some disadvantageous event occurs. For example, this phenomenon can appear when someone breaks up with a girlfriend, and then gets back together. This may also happen when you boost your grade in a class after getting a D on a term paper. The point that Proust made seemed very relevant to me; this sort of satisfaction that we feel when events like this happen appears to occur nearly every day, whether we realize it or not.
Another point that I found interesting and relatable was his demonstration that present pleasure can cancel out worries about upcoming events in the future. This has happened to me countless times. When I was in Venice this summer, I sat on the roof overlooking a Venetian sunset with my feet kicked back and a cold glass of Coke. Every worry in my mind melted; I was not at all concerned about how early I had to wake up the next day for tours or where I was going to go for dinner that night. Events like this likewise seem to happen to me every day (though I may not always end up watching a Venetian sunset). Even the simple things, like taking a walk across campus or lying down in bed, can make my worries diminish.