Anne Frank

I got in the habit of keeping a journal/diary years ago...documenting my life as I saw it. At some point I figured these were books I had to keep. What if I became the next Anne Frank? What if there was something really important in these books that the world would eventually need, or at the very least, benefit from. So I'd finish a journal, put it in a box and move on to the next one.

Writing was very helpful for me in a lot of ways, mostly because as I was trying to figure what would actually go on the page, I was processing through it so that I could see events and feelings a little more clearly by the time I was done. There have been quite a few times I would open an old journal and remind myself of mostly forgotten memories...turns out there is a good reason I left those things behind me. I already know who I am. I have not lived in an attic in hiding during a war, my life has not been amazing, and there is nothing in any of my journals to suggest "best seller" or even "publishable". So, I figured it is time for me to let those books go - to let the forgotten memories disappear, and the remembered ones to live in my mind as they already do. What do you do with old journals though? Not really something I feel can be tossed out...certainly not going to donate them to the local "Goodwill"...

I am going to make paper! :D I have been re-reading and tearing out pages today...and once I find some screen, frames, etc. I am going to make my old journal pages into NEW journal pages...or, at least new PAGES!

I would like to leave you with a quote, from the non-best seller autobiography of one, Beth Diener:

"It didn't matter that I was sore, hot, or that a girl ran into my butt with her ski - I was going to give it my best because I wanted to" ;)