Saturday, February 9, 2013

Journaling

A FEW DAYS AGO, I was reading Kathleen Pooler's blog. She was writing about her lifelong experience with journaling. If you have a chance, hop over and read it--very enlightening.

Kathy's post got me to thinking about my own experiences with journaling. I started with a little diary, a gift I received on my 11th birthday. It had a lock and key and a page for each day of the year. My entries were nothing more than simple, "No school today, watched soap operas and Let's Make a Deal." 

It wasn't until I entered Junior High in 1974 that my serious affair with journaling took hold. During study hall I'd take a piece of notebook paper and write out my frustrations, releasing my teenage angst in the only way I knew how. With the ring of the bell, I'd fold my paper and tuck it into my pocket or my purse, guarding it with my life. Nobody would be allowed to see it. Ever. When I got home, it would become another painful installment in the mounting collection I kept in a notebook under my mattress. 

This went on until I married my best friend in 1980 then resumed in the early 1990s when I went through a mental and emotional nightmare that I write about in my memoir.  

There have been a few occasions when I've toyed with getting rid of what is now an entire box of journals but for reasons I can't explain, I'm unable to part with them.  

How about you? Did you journal when you were a teenager and do you still today? And if so do you still have all of them? 


11 comments:

  1. I didn't start journaling until a young adult and have been doing it ever since. It really helps me emotionally.

    FlowerLady

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  2. Hi Grace, Thanks very much for the mention and link. We definitely have a similar story except I got rid of some of my older journals and wished I hadn't. Journaling has been a lifeline for me throughout the years and will continue to be. Thanks for keeping this discussion going:-)

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  3. I guess I never thought I had anything to journal about or that I would say such silly things that may be used or embarrass my kin folk upon my demise. LOL! I had a diary like most of the girls in my youth but I burned them. LOL!

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  4. How could you ever get rid of them!?!? I have old spirals and notebooks from high school that I wrote in. I dig them out of the cedar chest on occasion to read a few pages. It's crazy to see where you were at certain times in your life.
    I don't do it anymore, and haven't for a long time. Unless you count blogging. I suppose it does fill the writing void, even when you're not pouring your heart and soul out.
    I've considered doing the gratitude journal. I hear they're good attitude adjustments. :o)

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  5. No I was not one to write my thoughts in a journal and still have a problem doing it....I would think that if I did journal I would want to keep them as they are part of you...I wish I had some of my writing pieces from high school when I mused about politics in my junior year on a weekly basis for part of my grade...sort of like a journal.

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  6. I have a couple of journals from my teen years, and then journals from later in life. I don't journal regularly anymore, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be helpful for me. It really is a good way to remember how you were and how you felt during a particular period of your life.

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  7. Yes dear, I did journal and draw in my journals.

    YOU BETTER NOT toss your history!!

    Love,

    S

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  8. Grace, don't even think about throwing out your notebooks! I am quite sure you would end up regretting it.

    I started keeping a diary when I was eleven years old and I have never stopped. That's 49 years of a life as it was being lived and still going strong. The notebooks fill an entire four-drawer filing cabinet out in my shed. I never look at them anymore- it is too painful at times and always too embarrassing!

    Notice that I call it a diary. Can anyone tell me the difference between a diary and a journal? Or, if there is no difference, why journal has become the term currently in use?

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  9. My grandmother kept diaries her whole life. She gave me my first diary. I was probably twelve and kept writing up until I found out my mother was reading my diary. It was such a huge invasion of privacy for me. I was a good student and she had no reason..if there ever is one..to snoop. I was devastated. My blog is kind of my journal I guess.

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  10. Grace...I stopped keeping a diary when I couldn't hide it well enough from my brother to find. Later on I started writing a lot of letters I did usually keep copies of the ones I sent and those I received. It's always a blast from the past to go back and read how I was feeling many years ago.

    I had a quirk about not throwing away any card or note sent to me and now I have boxes and drawers full and doubt I'll ever find the will to discard them.

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  11. OH my, I've been journaling for quite a few years. Many more that I want to admit, I think. Nowadays my journaling is mostly done when I update my various journals; gardening and yurting/camping and children's journals. It's great fun, sometimes, to go back and read the entries. I've not gone back into my college years journalling though, not sure I'm brave enough.

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