Did any of you keep a diary? How old were you when starting? Did anyone ever read it that wasn't suppose to? Does anyone still keep a diary or should I call it journaling now? For me I got one on my 12th Birthday from my older Aunt and wrote in it faithfully. Mine had a key which I used and hung behind my headboard so I doubt anyone read it. I haven't written in one since I was 21 and married and going to be a mom. I haven't journaled much either but am regretful of that...next!

Yes, Chatty, I started a diary when I was about 8, and it had a key. I would enter my feelings about Paul McCartney, and do book reviews on Nancy Drew. I also entered a poem about nature. I kept to "safe" subjects because I was afraid that my older brother, or worse, my step father, would read it. I did write about my mother being sick all the time. I kept diaries off and on through out my life. My worst experience with journaling occurred when I was about 21 and married. My "husband" (insert appropriate alternate words for loser) deemed "diary" (journaling was too sophisticated a term for him) a "waste of time" (time not spent cooking or cleaning for him) and literally burned my notebooks with a Bic lighter. That gave me writer's block for a decade or so. But I would write on scraps of papers, writing little notes to myself, phrases, quotes, lyrics, verses, memories, all of which I kept in a variety of places, therefore they did not seem compiled like in a journal. Some I would date, 1976, so on. Then in 1984 I met my now husband, the real deal. And I felt safe and private and started journaling both in present and past tense, plus future plans. I haven't stopped. But what to do with all those journals? Last year, we were planning to move. I had my journals packed in Uhaul boxes, stored in the basement. The city sewer system backed up into our basement, destroying the boxes and the contents. The soggy boxes went into the dumpster that was parked in our driveway (next to the For Sale sign.) I guess the universe was telling me I was finished with the past. Now I teach a beginner's journal writing class once a month at a church. I have a hand out of books that I recommend to help people get started on journaling. Next?....

I was never good about keeping a diary. I had one in jr. high and high school, but I could go weeks without writing anything in it. I've tried journaling more recently. I keep thinking it's something I should do, but somehow I never get around to it. I would love any helpful tools anyone could share that might help me get better about doing this.

I have started dairies as soon as I became pregnant with our first child more than 20 years ago. I keep them all in a plastic storage container. I have never missed a year since Rob's birth of keeping journals.

Oh wow Lynnie, what a loss. I bet there was a fountain of information and memories in all those soggy pages. Thats so sad.

I started journalling when I was about 9 years old, in a beautiful diary with a lock and key that my Mom gave me that Christmas. I continued journaling almost every night (except during the summer when I was working at a summer camp) for about 25 years...I wrote everything in those journals - prayers, poems, tears, fears and crushes! I stopped when hubby moved in and the long-yearned-for novelty of companionship wooed me into giving away every semblance of spare time!

I'm trying to get back into it now, moving more toward a "Gratitude Journal" than a tell-all diary...especially since there's not much "all" to tell anymore!

I still have every one of those diaries. Don't know what to do with them...seems wrong to throw them away, since they're such intimate parts of me. So they're all sitting in a plastic crate in the storeroom.

Lynnie, my heart breaks to think of all yours gone like that!

I was a person that was always cleaning old stuff out to make room for new stuff and can't even imagine how much I did away with but could kick myself over and over because there were some things in the heap that would be very valuable today I'm sure.....dumb, dumb!

I don't know about you, but it seems as though right after I decide to get rid of something, I could probably have used it the next day.

It would seem sad about the sewer soaked journals. When I fought with the city to get compensation, I mentioned in my letter that there was no way to repay me for those lost journals. (I used latex gloves to open the journals, take poloroids, and submit the pics with illegible blurred ink to the city manager). But I am okay with it now. Because Beyond the Tears (taken from journals and scraps) was on a CD Rom by then and Beyond the FEARS (about cancer) was already transferred from the journals to my word processor. I was going to write about going back to school in mid life, and all that was in the journals that got ruined, and I don't know how to recreate that experience without the journals, but I have enough work on my mind to last a lifetime anyway. To those of you who still have them, do take care of them. Plastic. Why didn't I think of that? Eagle, I'm glad you rediscovered your journal, in whatever form. Chatty, I'm a declutter type person too. Now I am taking on sentimental things of my grandmother's, mother, etc, and I am hanging on to those things for dear life. No more throw aways for me! Ladybug, have you passed on those journals to Rob yet or do you plan to? NHJ, after I finish moving, I'll see what I can do about posting something to jump start you journaling, if you would like. Or maybe I can make a pamphlet of my curriculum for a small fee. I do believe in journaling as a form of self-care and self-expression!

I started my first diary when I was about 12. I have no idea what happened to them. Knowing my Mother, she threw them away.
I started to journal when I realized my marriage was gone, and I needed somewhere to vent.
I still have them. Seven years of horrible, horrible language.......hateful thoughts........the last time I tried reading thru them, I couldn't do it.
I had forgotten about them until now.
Should I get rid of them?
Lynne