Do you, or did you ever, keep a diary or journal?
By Fleur
@Fleura (34927)
United Kingdom
March 4, 2024 3:09am CST
When I was younger I always intended to keep a diary, but rarely managed to get past the first few days of January although I tried several times. Sometimes I would manage to fill in a few days later in the year, but that was about it. Generally the problem was that if nothing interesting happened, it wasn’t worth writing about, and if interesting things did happen there was no time to write about them!
Why did I want to keep one anyway? Well partly so I could go back and re-live interesting experiences I suppose, and partly because I had dreams of ‘being a writer’ and I thought it might make useful material someday.
Fast forward 25 years and now I’m wondering what to do with the material I did manage to write. I took some away with me at the weekend when I was alone and have enjoyed reading it, although even I was a bit scandalised by some of the goings-on, and taken aback by the incredible pace of events and the number of times I got to bed at 4am!
Some parts I am definitely going to burn. What did you do with yours, if you had one?
OK the picture isn't really the kind of diary where you can write a lot of detail but it's what I have handy!
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.
10 people like this
9 responses
@JudyEv (381745)
• Rockingham, Australia
5 Mar 24
I never kept a personal type of diary - which I'm quite pleased about now. 
Some of miine I might have felt inclined to burn too. I kept a diary of day to day stuff from 1975 to 2005 on and off. I've typed out most of my mother's diaries. There run from 1956 to 2005. She was 95 by then. Hers are to do with day to day stuff too but they've solved a lot of arguments over the years.
Some of miine I might have felt inclined to burn too. I kept a diary of day to day stuff from 1975 to 2005 on and off. I've typed out most of my mother's diaries. There run from 1956 to 2005. She was 95 by then. Hers are to do with day to day stuff too but they've solved a lot of arguments over the years.1 person likes this
@Fleura (34927)
• United Kingdom
5 Mar 24
I have some little pocket diaries from my childhood with not very much in them but there are some notable things, it would probably be a good idea to just keep a note elsewhere and get rid of a bit of clutter!
I was reading about my trip to Australia back in 1998! That was quite interesting. I was a bit shocked by the 'pokies' available all over the place, 24 hours a day. And surprised to find perfume vending machines in ladies' toilets (maybe men's too, I wouldn't know!)
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@JudyEv (381745)
• Rockingham, Australia
5 Mar 24
@Fleura Reducing clutter is why I've typed out most of Mum's diaries. I've now given them to a nephew who was a favourite of hers and was keen to have them.
We only have pokies in the casino in WA but I know they're everywhere in the east.
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@Marilynda1225 (91013)
• United States
4 Mar 24
I had a diary when I was a teen but don't remember much about it. My teenage years weren't very exciting so i doubt I wrote anything scandalous in it
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@BarBaraPrz (51811)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Mar 24
I've kept a diary off and on ever since I was 11. That first one was a tiny thing with a week spreading across two facing pages, each day had about 4 lines to write in and Sat/Sun shared the last spot with 2 lines each. Obviously, I didn't have much to write about and I'm not sure if I still have it, but I do have most of the others.
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@wolfgirl569 (135583)
• Marion, Ohio
4 Mar 24
I never kept one. Tried a couple of times but gave up fast
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@LindaOHio (222222)
• United States
4 Mar 24
I kept one until I was in my late teens. I love going back and reading what I wrote. I'm surprised at some things which I had forgotten. Have a good week.
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@LadyDuck (502148)
• Italy
4 Mar 24
I keep a daily journal, even if there is nothing really interesting, I write the kind of weather we have, the temperature what we had for lunch and dinner and what we did during the day. I love to check the past years and to realize that often we complain of the changes only because we do not remember.
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