Do you keep a journal or diary?

[Bicuriousity]

I was wondering how many of you keep a journal or diary. I really want to but fear it will be read by the wrong people. The few times i have in the past as a child, a parent read it. Of course now im grown up some chances of it falling i. The wrong hands are nill, but if i pass away or sometging unexpectefdly not sure how much of my true self should br exposed. I guess i could write a censored diary but thwn id feel that i am holding back.

If anything id love to document some of my vacations and experiences in life for my own enjoyment later, sometimes over the years you start to forget little nuances and details about the events of your life.

[Spiro]

I too have always been afraid that mine would be found as well. It would be nice to keep one of the feelings in my heart but of course those feelings need to stay hidden.

maybe a website of confidential journals, ie that you log in to keep in an assumed name. but oh well who would pay for such a on-line journal.

I would write of the ones I really love and care about and of course of both the guys and woman that I find hot. and what I really felt at each point in my life.

Spiro

[sammie19]

A friend of mine keeps journals in which is included quite graphic details of all of her adventures, names, sex, places and a scoring system. She is openly lesbian but wasnt always so, and she tells her partner that when she dies, to tidy them up and publish cos they would make a good raunchy story.

There are a few names who are well known locally included she says who will "shit themselves", of both sexes, not because they are named but she says because of their somewhat insipid performance in between the sheets. She says they cant be published before she dies because of her shame and embarrassment about some of the "dicks and dogs" (her expression) she has slept with. lol.

I'd love a look just to see how desperate she was at times. lol:tong:

Contrast my diaries. Names, dates and birthdays and very boring to the reader, all except me.

[12voltman59]

I have kept journals over the years--I actually have a fair number that are filled--I do keep them in a "safe place." What does tend to happen with me--I go through these spurts that I keep them up regularly---writing in them at least every so many days if not every day---more or less summing things up and not being all that detailed-then I go and don't do diddly in them for six months or up to a year.

One thing that is kind of interesting---when I go back and read through them from years past----I find that my "issues" regarding bisexuality go back much further than I actually recall---at the very least--I would write about my feelings that I wanted to do something with another guy or something of that nature. I did find that to be rather interesting such was the case. It has been a long process to get to where I am now with this--and how comfortable I am now--but how painful that was in those days--just trying to figure things out and "get a handle" on them.

It is also interesting to read of "hard times" experienced in my life--like times when a loved one was sick and dying or something of that nature and that I did write of my feelings regarding the situation---feelings, memories, etc, that I have seemed to compartmentalize rather well--but can relive via what was written in the pages of my journals---I think it is a good thing that I have those words to go back and read---just so I don't forget what I have been through no matter how painful it might have been at the time.

[niftyshellshock]

Mine's in a non-descript spiral notebook. I write on it whenever there's particularly strong surges of emotion. There is nothing incriminating there, but it might surprise some people =p

[Stargazer1417]

I don't keep one but I have tried. I guess I just found it tedious and frustrating. I don't like writing something twice (I'm a writer and if I create a draft and for some reason it gets lost or deleted it is like pulling teeth to have to do it over again, and if I can help it I won't) and I guess I feel the same way when I live something and then try to record it. I just got frustrated and rather irrationally annoyed and gave up.

I think its a great idea, though, if you have the patience for it.

As far as who will find it if you pass away, I think I can offer some information on that subject. My mom was, shall we say, adventurous. She was in an open relationship for the last 10 years of her life, and had several lovers, both men and women, and was into a lot of alternative practices. Pretty cool to have as a mom, actually, since I couldn't freak her out with anything if I tried. She kept a lot of diaries and also had binders of very graphic emails between her and at least one of her lovers. When she passed a few years ago, it was my job to sort through her things.

Even though I knew what mom was up to, obviously I had no desire to read it. She was my mom after all. With each of the diaries or binders I opened them to see what they were, and it was pretty much immediately clear what was contained. Once I had it figured out, I did not read them. I set them, along with some photos of her that I similarly saw just enough of, aside and gave them to her partner when I had a chance.

She did keep journals that didn't deal with the graphic stuff, and those I kept and I did read because I think she would have wanted me to. They were private when she was alive, but I am sure in death she would have wanted me to know her better and now I do. I have never shared those with anyone else, and I treasure them.

Anyway, perhaps an idea might be to keep the really graphic stuff in a seperate journal and clearly label it as READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. If someone does read it at that point, well you will be gone and its their own fault for reading it if they didn't want the information you would have provided. :tongue:

[softfruit]

The joy of the internet is you could do it as an anonymous blog.

The agony of the internet is, if your blogging site goes bust, you might lose every word!

[Realist]

I am a collector of anecdotes and stories that I've heard and experienced over the years, but never made the effort to write them down. Names and faces sometime fade with age and I often wish I could remember a particular incident, or person's name.

I remember reading a Victorian-era diary that, I think, was published in around 1900, after some lord died. I think the name of the publication was "The Diary of a Voluptuary".

It was about an all boys private school and interesting to me, because I had been sent to military schools at the very onset of puberty. There, I learned way more than my parents had intended! At the time I read the diary, I was astounded that such mischief went on, back then! Really, though, few things about human nature has changed, since the beginning of time.

The diary was eloquently written, in the vernacular of the English upper-class. To me, it was extremely provocative....and nostalgic. I had a few of the same mindset and experiences the author had.

I doubt if I could have written something as spellbinding, as that Victorian diary........but for my own use as a memory-jogger, I should have written one, too.

[Hephaestion]

Have kept one for many years. Nothing elaborate, just a record of the day. The advent of the personal computer has made this easy. As noted by others, keeping one's emails serves a similar purpose and / or augments the record.

Then there's the 'third party' records of paperwork surrounding life, marriage(s), births, purchases, taxes,... etc not to mention the various letters and photographs (or digital images) formal publications, radio interviews, and TV appearances, protest marches.

We must be amongst the most recorded generations in human history.