Recently

The speaker remembers a time when being free felt like a good reason to be happy, and when he could act as if an earlier hurt no longer mattered. Lately, however, memories of someone from the past have begun affecting him again. The song moves from confidence and apparent recovery toward a more vulnerable admission: he is not as emotionally strong as he once believed.

The lyrics present memories as having two sides: they can be comforting “friends,” but they can also carry someone back to a painful place or bring an absent person vividly to mind. Saying a memory “gets to me” means it has a strong emotional effect, even if the speaker does not choose to dwell on it. The contrast between “the past is gone” and “the future is tomorrow” expresses a wish to move forward, but the speaker’s feelings show that knowing the past is over does not make it easy to leave behind.

There is some ambiguity about what the relationship was or why it ended; the lyrics do not give those details. The speaker even says it no longer matters who was wrong, suggesting that blame is less important now than the unexpected return of old feelings. His honesty may indicate that he is beginning to face his vulnerability, though the song does not say whether he will overcome it.