Did you ever write a diary?
I’ve been thinking about this today. I’m a history teacher, and my students today were examining diaries and accounts from westward pioneers. Did those people realize what it was they were leaving behind? That their words would be studied for hundreds of years? Or did they just do it as therapy?
I wrote in a diary a few times. In my youth, about once a year for about three or four years, I started a diary. I think the most entries I wrote was about five each time. Then I lost the habit. And my entries weren’t any good. No thoughts, no feelings. They were a simple list of every day. What did I do at school? Who did I hang out with?
They hardly leave anything behind. Except embarrassment. And they barely give me enough for that.
I wish that I had written more. I’d have loved that view into my life as a kid. But at the same time, maybe the mystery is a good thing.
