I recently discovered some childhood treasures. Included with these memory buckets of times gone past is a diary I kept when I was 11 years old.

When I spotted the diary again after all of these years (and believe me, plenty of years have passed), I was excited to read it. What experiences and thoughts were considered important enough to my child-self that I needed to write them down? Perhaps I wrote of my love for track and field, or soccer. My favourite teacher. Or my favourite books (Sweet Valley High anyone?).

Flipping through the pages, it’s obvious that my first foray into journaling was about keeping things simple.

A lot of the entries start with, “Today was the sames as yesterday.” Which would be okay…if I hadn’t continually repeated it. Day. By day. By day.

Example entry:

Now this entry is a little more creative. Here I’m writing about food! And friends!

It’s a little hard to read, so let me translate:

Today we had Kentucky Fried Chicken and went to visit a friend of Carol’s!!!

While I poke fun at these journal entries, in truth I find the words written on these pages a delicious re-introduction to my 11-year-old self. While most are similar to the examples above, some reference feuds with my siblings. Frictions between friends…and yes the odd boy crush.

These entries – seemingly trivial now and most definitely formulaic – speak of a dedication to put pen to paper. To re-cap my days…even if only to reassure my future self that yes, today was the same as yesterday. And yesterday was fun.

Did you keep a diary as a child? Do you look back on your entries with a nostalgic smile or a perplexed grin? Bit of both perhaps…?

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Well Day Two of the Five for Five blog meme is on like Donkey Kong! The prompt is “words”. If you’re interested in some more “words” on this meme check out Momalom.com.