In the story "On Keeping a Notebook," Joan Didion describes different journal entries and her memories associated with them. She looked back on herself while she read them and described the girl that wrote them. I, like Didion, kept a journal when I was younger. Unlike the journals Didion kept, mine were all fact and feelings. I never kept a daily journal though because I often got bored and ran out of time to write.
When I look back on what I wrote on November 1, 2002, I realize how different I am now. In one entry, I might have put that I was mad at my brother because my grandparents had gotten him a bed, or how I thought my sister was stuck-up because she wouldn't play with me. Every time I read them, I realize how simple my life conflicts were and how naive I really was.
My memories of my childhood seem to give me a different sense of who I was though. I remember in the fifth grade, Tamagotchis were a big thing and we weren't allowed to have them in school. I saw someone who had one and instantly tattled to my music teacher who took it away until the end of the school year. Thankfully, the girl I tattled on never knew it was me but I remember feeling very bad.
I am still that hones fifth grade girl today, only I have learned the appropriate times to hold my tongue (or at least I am working on it). There were other times in my childhood that I remember myself as bratty and stuck-up.
As I have grown, I have tried to overcome some of the traits I did not like, such as being a brat, and hold on to the ones I did, like honesty. I am sure as I keep growing I will find myself changing even more and hopefully morphing into someone I am proud to be. Didion looked back on her past through her journals to find the person she once was, and maybe I will too. (350)
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