I am glad I didn't write much down.
I read it all now and my primary thoughts are either about what a brat I was or how embarrassed I am because obviously I have always been a total moron. This always makes me feel like I must still be a total moron, because it is still me, right? Some examples:
- I wrote detailed explanations of daily events when I was little, including all of my siblings bodily functions.
- I wrote about the bugs that I found in the garden and in the window wells. There is even a picture of one insect that I attempted to draw, although I am not sure anyone living could identify it as such.
- I wrote quite a lot about boys. I accept that this is normal, but what a waste of a lot of time, paper and ink. Now there were some very nice boys, don't get me wrong. But there were a lot who simply weren't.
- I wrote about how much my mom hated me, and how much I hated my older sister. (whom I do not hate one bit, actually)
- I wrote a lot about singing--singing with friends, with school groups, with church groups, problems with singing...hm, could I have been a bigger nerd?
None of this inspires me to be a better journal keeper; in fact, I never want ANYONE reading what I wrote in those journals. But since blogging has been as close as I have come, I am trying to keep it up. But some things are off limits.
- Bodily functions-nobody needs to know, and I don't want to remember. I departed from this one a couple of months ago with my sister's foot injury. What can I say, the morbid fascination was too much for me. Sorry.
- Complicated family relationships. They are private and no one needs to know about it but me and them.
- Our childless state. Trust me, it gets talked about all the time, I certainly don't want to write about it.
- Anger. Anger just does not work for me, and it's never worth the embarrassment you feel when you go back and read what you wrote when you were angry. (Although anger does get teenagers to move their backpacks out of the walkway very quickly.)
- My body shape and size. I am what I am. Nobody needs to hear about it; not even I want to hear about it most of the time.
- Work frustrations. Everyone has work frustrations. But they are almost always temporary and it's better to remember that you yourself may be someone's work frustration, so don't write about it for anyone else to read about. Would you want to be written about that way? Besides, it's hard for me to be happy if I am knowingly causing discomfort to someone else. (The exception being giving homework and tests. Discomfort? Yes. Cruelty? No.)
3 comments:
Well Said. I love you.
Love, The Sister you hated so much
Unfortunately, I have always kept pretty detailed journals. My young journals went something like, "I woke up. I got dressed. I ate Life cereal for breakfast. I went to school..." Can we get any more boring?
I don't think I wrote about bodily functions, though. (Although, for the record, I don't consider Sue's foot a bodily function...)
My teen journals are so embarrassing I think I want to burn them all. Oh the angst! Over boys I don't even remember anymore! :)
When we were moving I came across a whole bunch of letters you wrote me from Guatemala. If you want to add them to your journal collection, you can. Sometimes I think correspondence is more interesting than journals for posterity to read, especially since we knew someone else would read the letters. Right!
Fun post. :)
I have always kept journals , from the time I learned to write...the best are:3rd grade-a journal filled with trash collected from around my classroom, and :6th grade-first peck on the lips with a boy...and how gross it was!
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