I've been doing what I always do when I spend time at my mom's house -- going through a lot of old stuff, digging up memories. I left a few items here when Dave and I moved to England last summer, because we weren't sure at that point whether we'd be staying. Now that we know we'll be in London for a while, I'm deciding which of those items to take back with me. (I left room in my suitcase for just this purpose!)
I have a little box of childhood awards, for example, and Dave's mom put together some photo albums of his family which she gave us just as we prepared to move. We'd already shipped our belongings and we had to carry all our clothes with us, so the photo albums were temporarily left behind. I'll take those back.
I also asked my brother to bring me my childhood journals, which are at his house. I don't know if I ever mentioned how I began keeping a journal -- as I recall, I was inspired by a neighborhood girl who had a diary. I asked for one too, and my parents indulged me with a three-year diary that came complete with a lock and key. I never wrote anything particularly personal in it -- I was 10 at that point! -- so the key was purely ornamental.
I went from that diary to small notebooks in the sixth grade, and unfortunately, those journals and the diary are now gone. But I still have my journals from seventh grade onwards, mostly because my brother saved them. They might make some entertaining future blog posts!
(Photo: Mysterious graffiti on the street near my mom's house. Did they know I was coming?)
A few years back when I moved I unearthed some journals I had written and an adolescent. I was SOOOOOOO embarrassed by what was in there. Not real personal stuff, again I was just a kid, but it was so shallow and lame. Still have them though I can't bring myself to read them again.
ReplyDeleteMs. M
Yeah, I destroyed a couple of my college journals because they were just embarrassing. Not lame so much as full of youthful drama. I may find these childhood journals to be lame -- stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked to hear you have a suitcase! he he... liz
ReplyDeleteI've read some of my early journaling & yeah - not exactly riveting stuff. Apparently I was really whiny as a teenager - sometimes as I was reading I wanted to go back to 16 year old Bug & say, "really? really?" Ha!
ReplyDeleteLOL, Liz -- I brought a suitcase expressly for this purpose! (And actually it belongs to Dave!)
ReplyDeleteI think EVERYONE is whiny as a teenager, Bug. It's basically a requirement.
i think all future writers feel the urge at some point in childhood to keep a journal. i kept one faithfully until i got married! i still have my early ones, too. and the ones written in my 20s are harrowing! and yet i keep them. should i throw them away? i would be horrified to have my children read them!
ReplyDeleteI too kept diaries and journals from the age of twelve onward but at various points got rid of them, mostly because of moving and not wanting an excess of clutter. Though much of the writing was a child's view of the world, it might be interesting to re-visit the person I was then...
ReplyDeletePS: Not only are humans whiny as teens, some of them experience whiny lives at menopause...While that has yet to occur for me, I have been warned...