The year I kept a diary (and why you should too)

When I was 14 I kept a diary. I didn’t write in it every day, but I’d say there was an entry at least once a week.

As you can probably imagine, the life of a 14 year old girl is far from vanilla.

When I stumbled across this diary while packing up my house a few years ago, I was surprised at just how much had gone on that year: bitchiness, scandal, grade highs, grade lows, getting into sports teams, not getting into sports teams, new romances, heart breaks, rumours, the passing of a friend’s parent, new friends, new teachers, anger, frustration, hilarity, fibs, dares – the most detailed of which was dressing up as boys and sneaking into the neighbouring boys’ school at lunch time.. (Hey mum, not sure if I ever told you about that one).

It was an eventful year to say the least. And one I’d not come close to having the detailed recollection of if it weren’t for my diary.

After flipping through all the pages, I remember thinking how much of a shame it was I’d not done this for all the other years. While I can remember a lot from high school, the density in my 2004 diary made me realise my other memories paled in comparison; there would undoubtedly be things I’d forgotten forever.

Since then, I’ve been a huge advocate for writing things down when they happen.

Memories, be them hilarious or painful, will always fade. But it’s good, and sometimes crucial, to remember what something felt like at the time.

When it comes to positive memories, marking how good they made us feel is an important thing to celebrate. Often we will talk down our achievements or forget just how much they impacted us at the time. However, having a note that states all the emotions we experienced can be an amazing reminder several years down the track of how great that moment truly was.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the not so good memories. And sometimes, while they do hurt, remembering their impact is important too. This isn’t so much about holding a grudge, it’s more about protecting ourselves in the future.

Sometimes when bad things happen we will make big decisions off the back of them; decisions that we may come to question when we have healed a bit. However, having a reference to what was going on at the time can remind us what the driving factors were and why we took the action we chose. Basically, a cue to all the things our minds tend to block out in the process of moving on.

Memories are amazing, but they can be selective. And as we get older they only get more scratchy. While keeping a diary, or writing a letter to ourselves when something big happens, may feel like an odd habit to get into, it’s worth it. It’s an amazing documentation of a moment that can have a lot of impact when revisited years down the track.

Seeing our own words is insightful into the people we were and the choices we made to get us to where we are. Positive or negative, there is a lot to be gleaned from listening to our past selves.

And, if you shoot forward a few decades to old age, I think it’s highly unlikely anyone would ever say “I wish I’d never kept a journal of my life”. If anything I think most of us would be in hysterics. There would be a few tears, plenty of smirks and without doubt, a wonderful state of nostalgia. Which feels like something worth making the time to write a few notes for.