Dear Diary….

(c) 2015 Google Images

“I had a bad day.  I feel like the world is going to explode around me.   My little brother, AKA “The Bratinator” (I guess that is how you spell it) will not leave me alone.  My older brother, “The Tool” told everyone my little secret.  You know, the one where I wrote that I was in love with a certain guy, I can only describe as “Y” (and dreamy).  I could just die from embarrassment.  Note to self…do not get neither one of these goons a Christmas present next week.   Speaking of which, my parents just gave me the best present of all…We are going to Disney World.  I just wish I could leave the goon brothers behind.  Eww, they just make me sick.  Mom told me that I can bring a friend.  I think I will ask my BFF, Becky.  I hope her parents will let her come.  We will have the best time, just me and her, for 6 days straight.  I would not have to put up with my stupid brothers, ever!!!!!  P. S.  I still love them.”

Did you ever keep a diary?   A diary is one of those journaling techniques from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I personally never caught on writing in one.  One of the most famous scenes in television history, is when Marcia caught Cindy snooping in her diary.  This was from the Brady Bunch.  In fact, Marcia had two crisis in regards to her diary.  There was an earlier episode, where Cindy gave Marcia’s diary to a book reseller by mistake.  Marcia was upset that everyone in the world would find out that she was madly in love with Desi Arnez Jr.  The diary was found, and Marcia show the entry to him.   As for the later episode, Marcia wrote in her diary that a famous talent agent was coming into town, and Cindy would be great as the next Shirley Temple.  Marcia was actually trying to stop Cindy from snooping.  It turned out that the woman visiting the Brady household was a client of Mike’s.

A diary is a little bit more private than a journal, which should be shared, but today’s journaling can be just as secretive

as a diary.  I think of diaries as more of a look into the personal window into a young girl’s heart and soul. 

The most famous of diaries is not of fiction (like the two Brady Bunch episodes), but of a real life depiction on what life was like for a young Jewish girl, and her recounts of hiding from the Nazis.  I am talking about Anne Frank.  It was not just about her, her family, and the Van Petz Family (Van Daan in the book according to Wikipedia), and how they got along during the day, when they were quiet, but it was how she saw the world from that tiny little window.  Shortly after The Netherlands was liberated from Nazis Germany, Anne’s father, Otto Frank returned to that home away from home, and found her diary, and had it published.  He wanted the world to know what a brave daughter he had before she died in the concentration camps. 

You do not have to be a famous person to keep a diary or journal.  Just start writing.  Write about your day, your feelings, or it can be something specific, such as a food diary, or a project journal.  Talk about your feelings, if you are becoming a mother for the first time, and you want your child to know about the things in life that matter.  These are some ideas.  Where you keep them is up to you as well:  You can just grab a notebook and start writing.  I use MS Word to write in my journal.  If you want to go public, turn your journaling into a blog. 

Journaling or writing in a diary is one of the few forms of writing, where there are no rules.  Have spelling mistakes, but do not make it a habit, or it can spill over into your other pieces of writing.  Free form your writing.  Grammar is also a must, but a grammar mistake every now and then does not hurt.

OK, I made one mistake….The rule is to have fun.  Do not always write serious stuff.  After all, there is a saying that goes, “I know I am in my own little world.  It’s OK, they know me here.”