Old diaries

[mamaduckbone]

I've been at my mum's today and brought home a box of old diaries that were still lurking under a bed.

The rest of the afternoon has been spent down a wormhole, reliving my teenage angst, first years at university...I just want to give 18 year old me a big hug and tell her to have more confidence, ditch the safe boyfriend at home and have an amazing time without feeling guilty. And then not to get sucked straight into another relationship when that one ended. I was never free and single at uni (I think it was an insecurity thing) and reading it all back I was so bloody needy!

I now can't decide whether to throw the whole lot away or keep them hidden VERY safely away - would be completely mortified if Dh or the dc read them!

What would you say to your 18yo self?

I had a box of old school letters in the loft which when I re read I had to throw away as I could not of risked my Dh of DC reading them! So I do feel your dilemma… I made my decision after think if I died and they had to clear out my stuff …😬

I've got all my old diaries and letters. They're my most treasured possessions and in the unlikely event of the zombie apocalypse, once I'd saved dd and possibly dp, I'd get my diaries.

I think I'd just tell my 18 year old self to do it. Ring him. Tell him. Leave him. Stay with him. Book that flight. Take that job. Do that course. All the things my diaries angst over.

I have old diaries but I'm Gona chuck them soon.
I cringe reading them and wouldn't want anyone else to read them.

I know what happened in my head.

Bind them in leather so you can dramatically return to them as desired a la the vampire diaries 😆

Mine are absolutely laugh out loud hilarious, especially the teenage years. They are full of agonies over boys I can't even remember, pompous philosophising and taking myself soooo seriously, before a sharp handbrake turn into complete nonsense!
I've shared some of my diaries from college years with my two best friends and we could barely speak for laughing at how ridiculous we were.
What has been far more poignant has been finding boxes of old letters. They served as a reminder that letter writing really is a lost art and brought back such vivid and bittersweet memories.

I kept a detailed diary from age 11 to 16. Pages and pages of text a day.
I binned them all a few years ago!
I read through them and thought "you vein, shallow idiot". Lots of it was about how I looked, how many boys fancied me and so on - not something I'm keen to be associated with.

I'd say to myself, "Look at you! You are so bloody gorgeous! Make the most of it!"

I did have the same boyfriend throughout uni (not one from home) and I could have told myself to ditch him and play the field, but to be honest he was lovely and perfect for me then. He helped make my 3 years at uni some of the best of my life.

I think I would have told myself to travel a bit more once I left uni but tbh I loved my 20s, starting a career, living with friends, meeting DH. It's probably after then I'd have done things differently!