I admit, I love diaries and letters. I received a cool pink diary (with a lock no less!) when I was about 7. I used to write things like, "Tonight, I slept over my grandmother's house - Lillian D." and we talked to her neighbor, Mrs. G about my brother, Jeffrey - to ensure when my biography was written, the author would get it all right! As a teenager, I would write down the lyrics of any song that spoke to me like a secret code of what I was feeling. I don't keep a diary any more and journal sporadically. I find my journals become the trash can for all my hateful feelings - I would never want anyone to find them if I died, it would be horrifying for the reader!
I just re-read The Diary of Anne Frank with my 8th grader. He said what really struck him was that she was so much like him. Her mother and siblings annoyed her, she liked to write, she seemed happy one minute and sad the next, a lot like him at this stage of his life. Sometimes it is easy to forget that love, sacrifice and struggle are felt by everyone, everywhere in every circumstance imaginable. Blogs and diaries are reminders of that.
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