Connecting with a Younger You
I traveled to Maine at the start of 2025 and found myself headed to Maine Root Kombuchery to pass an hour with a tasty flight of assorted kombucha flavors and some time with my journal. My NA lifestyle choice means a departure from tasting menu wine pairings and brewery tours. To find a spot with an NA flight and a side of tortilla chips felt like a blast from the past with a more promising future ahead. When the flight was done, I packed up my car with 3 packs of kombucha to drive back to NY.
When I brought my husband to Portland 6 months later, I carved out time to visit the kombuchery where we would have our cooler bag ready to load up for the ride home. We tried Summery Beach Rose and Vanilla Rooibos. Sung positioned our flight at the corner of the bar, him waiting for the tortilla chips and me browsing the stack of games. A 500-piece puzzle wasn’t doable for our pit stop, nor was Apples to Apples, with just the two of us 2, although it can apparently be adapted for 2 players. Luckily, I saw that beautiful rectangular board and bag of beads calling me from my youth — Mancala.
Mancala was a game I purchased in the late 90s, when it was new to the scene. When I looked up how old the game was, I was surprised to see that it originated around ca. 5000 BCE in ancient Africa. The simplicity of the boards and beads should have told me that this was a game from yesteryear, before Mall Madness was an option, a game with a speaker that said things like “There’s a sale at the pet store!”
Despite its simplicity, it took us a few minutes to recall the exact Mancala rules. I remembered dropping all of the beads in the containers but couldn't remember exactly when each player’s turn ended. A couple of plays in though, it became obvious and all of my Mancala moves came back to me. Several games later, four kombucha samples drunk and a basket of tortilla chips consumed, it was time to head out. Our next tourist attraction was one that people seek everywhere they go - which is “looking at the water.” For some reason, we feel drawn to find water, look at the water, and walk along the water. Where is the water?!
After leaving the mancala board in its home at the Kombuchery, I was tempted to buy a board for my house so Sung and I could play after dinner. But sometimes nostalgia is best visited as a tourist, and not made a permanent resident. To reconnect with a younger version of you (although technically all previous versions of you are a younger version of you) can be such a special experience.
In 2024, I visited Oyster Pond in Chatham, Cape Cod, at the townhouse complex we stayed at when I was a kid. I walked on the open grass where I used to attempt to fly a kite every year. I walked out to the dock, something we saved as a last day adventure, even though it was roughly 3 minutes walking distance from the pool. And I walked near the bushes we would hide in while we played Manhunt. I don’t need to stay a week to remember what my experience was like as a kid. A solid 30-minute revisit where I was fully present was enough to bring back memories of childhood and feel more connected to the physical space that is just not as achievable through photos.
Just like those kombucha flights and puzzle shelves, revisiting these places and rituals doesn’t have to mean reclaiming them forever—it just means honoring them for what they gave you. Whether it’s a childhood game, a familiar dock, or a new flight of flavors, these moments of reconnection don’t need to be permanent to be powerful.
How will you connect with a younger you today?
