Diary of a Young Woman: Restricted

September 25, 1978

I'M ON RETRICKSHONE for going to the library.

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Apparently, I didn't hone my spelling skills until much later than this diary entry. It's funny the way I capitalized the punishment and not the action or the cause that provoked the punishment.

Ahhhh....just a young girl willing to risk it all to gain one more minute inside the glorious walls of a library and grab the opportunity to discover another world within the pages of someone else's writings.

Dangerous, eh? ;)

Diary of a Young Woman: Nothing Really

The diary entry began...

January 11, 1978

Dear Diary,

Nothing really!

Dee

I find it puzzling that at 12 years old I would have nothing at all to record about that day and what appears to be a lot of other days in that year.  Where are the writings of interacting with my family?  Where are the writings of what school was like and whether or not I was learning?  Where are the writings of my hopes and dreams and aspirations for when I grew up? Where are the writings of how much I loved our beloved family dog named Duke?  Where are the writings that reveal a young girl trying to figure out who she was in the chaos of puberty?

I'm sad I didn't record those things that surely must have shaped who I am today.  I'm curious to know why I didn't record conversations and interactions and emotions but instead felt that my day was just nothing really.  I wonder if, in the process of maturing, I needed those days of nothing really so that I could weather the storms of growing up.

And...as I find myself in a day of nothing really, I'm now thinking about how I will record my day in my journal later tonight so that when I am 60 or 70 years old and reading back over the years of my writings, will I be able to remember who I am today?

Diary of a Young Woman

In my effort to paint, clean, organize, and discard things to get the house ready to go on the market in support of our Coastal Craziness, I found some true keepers!  I thought you may want to join me as I walk down memory lane a bit through diaries, annuals and mementos of my younger self.  

The earliest record of my thoughts began in 1978 when I was a cute 12 year old making many entries throughout writing in colored pens and fat cursive letters.  (For the sake of others and not to embarrass them, all names are being replaced with "boy" or "girl".)

The first entry began...

January 1, 1978

Dear Diary,

A boy did ask me.  He asked me Fri. Dec. 16, 1977.  Ya know, I think I'm in love with him but I am going to talk to Mom about it.  Tonight everyone said I could do the robot better than girl and girl got mad.

Dee

I giggled when I read it and even typing it out now puts a smile on my face.  I still remember boy and the intensity of the crush I had on him.  

It's interesting to pull some things out of the diary entry that reveal who I was then and how that compares with who I am now:

• I love details:  why else would I feel compelled to record the date of when boy asked me
• I love easily:  as we will see throughout my diary! lol
• I'm a talker:  I reason things out with others who are important in my life and who I feel will give me sound reasoning.  (thanks, Momma!)
• I dance:  the Robot was the craze then and has come and gone but I still love to throw on some happy music and groove to the beat! 
• I'm competitive:  I love to be better, best, and bestest as shown even at a young age of 12.  yikes!
• I liked my nickname:  The only ones who still call me Dee now are my family and friends I had from this time.  At some point in middle school or early high school I took a stance of independence and threw the nickname away and insisted on being called by my full first name. 

... I wonder if my relationship with boy lasted and if my friendship with girl survived the Robot?  ;)