Diaries and journals are indeed irresistible. How we all wonder what one another is thinking, to settle our curiosities as humans- and then, there it is! An entire person's life- their thoughts and fears and emotions. Everything they love and hate about the world. Everything kept together in a single, tempting book tied with a leather ribbon, pages worn from use.
Though it was tempting to read my sister's diary when I was ten, and she was twelve, I'd reconsider now. If it was not something they intended for me to read, then I would not read it, just as I hope they would do for me. Maybe a person writes with a hope that someone will read their journal, maybe they write to list their days methodically, maybe it is a form of self-soothing. No matter a person's intentions, subconscious or otherwise, for my sake and theirs, I could not read a person's journal. As Jenny Alexander writes: the person will not be in there. The person you know or knew is different from their own perception- written in a journal or otherwise.
If I was daring enough to keep a journal, I certainly would not allow it to be in the world for long. It is hard enough to express my emotions to the people I care about most- but the most embarrassing and dramatic aspects of my life sitting around for anyone to read? No, thanks.
The content would likely be derived from my emotions. You may ask, what exactly is my most frequent emotion? Well, anger. Anger at my parents for not letting our dog out. Anger at my sister for ordering guac instead of salsa. Anger at my friends for canceling our plans again. All irrelevant and frivolous now, but a much bigger problem then. It would simply not be fair for anyone to read.
Somehow, they would be destroyed. My family, as sentimental as they are, could not be trusted to destroy them, to leave them be, or simply decide what to do with them.
So, up in flames, in a dumpster, or page-by-page fed into a shredder. Maybe all three.
First of all, I really love your writing style! Your voice was very engaging, creative, and unique and snagged my attention right away. I also like the title of your post. It caught my eye because it sounded humorous, and I was curious to see what you meant by it. However, to make your post even more engaging, perhaps you could add some images and links and other multimedia elements. This will create possibilities for your audience to interact with your post and a visually pleasing layout. Maybe you could also expand some more on your content, like when you wrote about reading your sister's diary or what you would write in a journal if you had one and why this would make you want to destroy it, as it seemed like there was more to be said about these ideas. Overall, though, I think this was a pretty successful post!
ReplyDeleteI would very much read this on a blog! I followed your thoughts through their tracks ans agreed with most of them. Your strengths lie in your sentences, how they flow smoothly into one another. Try and go more in depth on your sisters diary, there seemed to be a story there.
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