Who here keeps a diary, and for how long?

I started keeping a day-to-day diary the day
I turned 8 (I’m 45 now). People find this very odd, and
often ask me why.

Anyone else keep one?

Well I call it a journal but same deal. I’ve kept it since about '92. My grandfather always kept a daily journal, I thought that it seemed like a good idea as well. It comes in pretty handy actually.

I’ve kept one off and on since I was about eight. It’s only ever been daily for about a year, now it’s pretty much when something significant happens, or I just feel like writing, that it’s used.

I have kept journals of various sorts since I was 12. I am 43 now. I go through phases, but I always come back to writing when I need to figure out my life. Times (like now) when I am not writing, are a sure sign that something bad is happening with me and I don’t want to deal with it. I will start again soon… because it helps. It also gives me a reputation for having a wonderful memory :cool:

I have kept journals since I was a chlid too. It helps me through times of indecision or when I need to be able to really put my feelings out in the open. Its also really great to look back on certain things.

I get my milk from the supermarket, and keep it 4-5 days. Cows, I’ve learned, are just too much trouble.
Ask funneefarmer.
Peace,
mangeorge

I kept a journal (daily sometimes but not others) most of the time from about 14 to about 35, after which it died and refused all attempts at resurrection.

It died about the time that it was starting to become clear that the woman I was seeing was going to be the future Mrs. Firefly. This may not make a lot of sense, but at the time, it was as if something was saying, “she’s supposed to be your ultimate confidant, not this notebook.” At any rate, it wasn’t a conscious decision to quit writing in my journal; in fact, I tried to keep it going. But it just didn’t want to be written in anymore.

A diary. Ha! I don’t think so.

When they write my biography, they’re going to have to guess a lot of stuff.

My daughter keeps one. She started it when she was 12. She’s nearly 18 and she still makes an entry every day.

What I wouldn’t give to have a peek.

Yeah, I have been writing in journals for 6 years- since I was 17.
It gives me almost as much anxiety as it does release.
During a particularly turbulent time when i was 17, my mom read my journal and i felt so violated and disgusted that I set the journal on fire and tossed teh flaming notebook out the window.
It landed in the yew bush below and started to smoke.
Oops, perhaps that was not a good idea.
Fortunately I was able to dash downstairs and outside and grab the hose in time.
But until very recently I still kept journals, but lived in great fear that they would be read.
It’s not that I have a bunch of weird secrets that would horrify any reader- I don’t know why the idea of them being read bothers me so much. Is that irrational?
I always wondered about what would happen if I died and teh six years worth of journals were to be read. I shudder to think and often wonder if maybe I should destroy them all in case i die suddenly.
Except for the past two weeks or so-
I got into this kick of trying to teach myself to be ambidextrous. It’s been working well.
I write left-handed in my journal in mirror writing.
It’s way too illegible for anyone to bother to with.
I even left it out -open-on my bed and did not feel horrified when I realized that I had forgotten to hide to it.
Also, teh effort to write left-handed backwards prevents me from becoming wordy and melodramatic- it’s too much strain.
I also found that teh content of what I write backwards and left-handed is a lot more entertaining, and I wouldn’t really mind if some of it were to be read.
No one would understand it anyway- it’s really weird.
I guess the rarely-used hemisphere of my brain was waiting 23 years to get some action, yet, it doesn’t quite what to write yet.
By the way, I have noticed over the years that the writings are getting more sophisticated as i get older, and so i think that despite teh irrational anxiety over teh journal being read, it can be extremely beneficial, not only for thereputic reasons but also for writing ability.

RTFirefly-
What you said makes a lot of sense to me-
in several volumes of old journals, I wrote all my thoughts as letters to a person I invented who was supposed to be my ultimate soulmate.
Unfortunately, i was not too creative in the person I invented to write to.
Some of the fear of my journals being read was because i thought I would die of embarrassment if anyone saw who teh letters were addressed to- it was a famous person.
I didn’t actually pretend that this person was my soulmate in real life, I just picked the IMAGE he projected in his music as my soulmate.
If someone read my journals, they might not have seen that.
Especially certain entries that said
“By the way, I really like your new album…”
I haven’t met a REAL person to replace the journal yet, but me and Mr. X have already discussed what would happen when that day came and he totally understands.
Sort of like how Jackie Paper eventually didn;t need Puff teh magic dragon anymore.
Except that my journal friend won’t die from me leaving him, he’ll just be transferred.