Madi has been asking me for weeks if I would pull out my “memory box”. Each one of the kids has their own box where they put birthday cards, art projects, and other random stuff, so I guess she was intrigued what I had in mine. I’m not sure what she was expecting, and frankly, I wasn’t sure what we were going to find either.
The box we ended up digging out of the depths was actually pretty organized. Before I moved out of my parent’s house after college, one of my jobs was to clean out my room, including the complete mess underneath my bed. The result was a bunch of ziploc bags filled with music boxes, knick knacks, letters, play programs, and photo albums. I also found my high school yearbooks and a journal from my sophomore year of college.
A journal, huh? I was intrigued, and immediately plopped down on the floor to check it out….and poof…I was transported back to 1996. It was a little wierd, reading about candlelights, visiting my roommate’s house, worrying about guys, and praying for my future husband. I think it was the longest time that I kept a journal, and it was extremely entertaining to read. On 12/30/96, I wrote “Someday, I can look back on this, and well, hopefully, I won’t laugh too hard – the idealistic dreams of an 18 year old.”
Anyways, it made me think about what I am doing with this blog, and the differences/similarities between it and my journal from 13 years ago. They both reference my day-to-day life, but instead of hoping no one would ever read my journal, now I am excited when I find out someone has read my blog and even more so when someone comments or talks to me about one of my posts.
Someone asked me once why I would want to put a “journal” online for other people to read, and the discovery of my old journal reminded me of the reason. “Stories lived” is one thing, but I believe that life was meant to be shared. Blogging can be like sitting around a virtual campfire where the best sharing takes place when you are looking at each other through the hazy smoke curling up into the sky. And sometimes you might hit the jackpot, where your “stories told” connect with other people and conversations are started, ideas are sparked, memories are uncovered…it’s pretty awesome.
And yeah, someday I might look back on what I wrote and get a good laugh about my life as a 31 year old, but at least, I have a few people along for the ride with me…
I, for one, enjoy your blogs. I’m always happy to see another one appear for me to read. It’s nice to feel like I know what’s going on in your life, even though I’m 1000 miles away.
Also, I love to revisit the past. I love finding old pictures, or a yearbook, or just having an old memory surface that brings me back to something that happened long ago. 🙂
Speaking of visiting your roommates house…we’re off to the fair this weekend! Hee hee
I do remember how utterly PRIVATE journals used to be in college & high school and now, our thoughts are out there for the bloggy world, family & friends to connect with. It’s sort of like a mature journal. I’m not as private about my thoughts as I used to be. Probably because I’m braggin’ on my kids or looking for support and a place to log my thoughts. I hope that my girls will be thrilled with the blog when they grow up and read back to their Mom’s thoughts about them!
And I do enjoy the connectedness it gives us!
Thanks roomies for your thoughts…it’s awesome being connected to you!