One thing that I unearthed recently was a big box of my old diaries. I did know that they were there, but the box had been pushed to the back of the wardrobe and I'd not seen it for a while. This is just a few of them...
I started keeping a diary around 1990, in my final year at primary school, and carried on pretty much until I went to University in 1998. There is a 2002 diary in the box, but I gave up around March that year. I always used A5 hardback diaries, beginning with two days to a page and working up to each day being an entire A5 page. I usually filled the page, and I stuck in various tickets, free stickers from magazines, and ephemera as well.
The diaries themselves are mainly pretty boring to be honest. They contain detailed descriptions of what I got up to in each lesson at school that day, along with plenty of teenage angst which makes me cringe when I read it back. It's like reading something written by a different person, and I can't believe that I got myself so worked up over such little things.
My instant reaction was to bin them, as I find them very difficult to read back. But when I asked for opinions on Instagram, almost everyone said I should keep them! I would hate for anyone else to read them though, so a note to family and friends - when I'm gone, burn them!
Although I stopped keeping such detailed diaries, I still kept a holiday journal with long accounts of our travels. But on my birthday last year I began keeping a diary again. I have a Five-Year Memory Book
where I write just a few sentences each night about what I've been up to that day. In years to come I can bore Ram before bed with details of what we were up to on that day in previous years. I also have my Smash Book, which I've started to use as a way to keep a few notes about memorable days and holidays, as well as a place to stick in tickets and other daily life ephemera. This is a really quick double page spread that I did the other day for our recent holiday to Disneyland Paris:
Do you have an embarrassing box of old diaries? I'd love to know what other people do with them! I can't help feeling that I'd feel much happier if I just binned the whole lot, but I don't want to regret it!
I've kept most of mine I binned one from when I was 16 my mental health wasn't great I hate what I wrote in there so tore it up when I was better very cathartic! X
ReplyDeleteI think I might find it cathartic to rip up some of mine!
DeleteThink you're right to hold on to your old diaries, though know what you mean about not really wanting to read through them - that's exactly how I'd feel... if I ever found mine!
ReplyDeleteLIke the idea of a Memory Book though, and lovely holiday collage.
I've stuck them back in the box at the top of the wardrobe, I tried to read though them but just couldn't bear it!
DeleteWhen my mum died, we had to go through her house, and I found my old leavers books from school - highly amusing, and I had obviously missed some of the comments before. And some diaries, although most had been chucked years ago. Think I wrote mine from 1991-95, so mid secondary school. And they were really boring to read, just who I fancied etc.
ReplyDeleteKate Davis, blogging at DarkTea, blogged about some of her old diaries. I think if I had nicer handwriting I'd do more journalling, but I'm not sure anyone else would be interested in reading my diaries, so I was fine to let those go. The school leavers books, I wasn't sure - I kind of wished I'd kept them, if only to prove to my OH how many boys fancied me!
I found a great book from school where all my friends had written stuff and I'd found a photo of each friend to stick next to what they had written, I'm definitely keeping that. I've delayed making a decision on the diaries for the time being, but I think they will end up going at some point. They just don't have any sentimental value for me!
DeleteI've been meaning to comment on this for months, and didn't realise that Emma had already mentioned me. This is definitely a topic that I'm very interested in. It is 25 years since I started writing the first diary I kept and I shared some of the amusing statements I'd written on my blog on the same date. I seem to have had a break or I just can't find the next diary so haven't done one for a while.
ReplyDeleteLike you I'm not sure what to do with them, but I'm reluctant to get rid of them. I did some research and came up with a list of suggestions, although some of them are destructive. I'd love to turn them all electronic and tag different entries so I can search them by person, event or location - but realistic I don't do that for my photographs so can't see it happening for my diaries
http://www.darktea.co.uk/blog/suggestions-old-diaries-journals
Thank you very much for sharing your post which I enjoyed reading after Emma's comment above! I always thought even when I was writing my diaries that I'd type them all up somewhere but now that I read them back they are really boring so I'm not sure that I could stand to do it!
Delete