i've documented my life since '99
If there is one thing that I know and love, it’s writing down what happens in my life. From outfit choices to horrible dating experiences, I have documented it all.
Journaling is an unexplainable release I picked up in middle school without even knowing it. Remember the notes you used to pass in class? Or did you attend middle school in the era of “the notebook”?
i wish i had one of my notebooks from middle school. it was the original group chat. i always loved getting the notebook last so i could respond to everyone’s notes from the day. but we always agreed never to take it home, because we talked too grown for 7th graders. we never got caught with “the notebooks” in high school. it looked like we were writing in a regular mead notebook, but then bishes got fancy and wanted to start decorating the outside of the notebooks. one day someone got caught, not anyone from my notebook group, but someone else. the big dummy tried to pass it to someone in class. the rule was never to pass in class because 1) that looks like you are cheating and 2) if they get it, they get not just one note, but months and months of back and forth.
Looking back, those notebooks are journal entries. I was sharing whatever was going through my pre-teen brain at the moment. I documented life.
I do not have those middle school notebooks, but I have my high school notes and planners I used to write my assignments and outfit choices. I can list out every single outfit from my freshman year of high school, 99–00'.
Friday, August 27, 1999, I wore white jeans with a lime green shirt.
Monday, November 8, 1999, I wore a yellow tube top and overalls. I wore this same outfit again on Thursday, March 9, 2000.
Wednesday, April 28, 2000, I wore my Wu-Tang shirt with blue jean shorts.
We only get one shot at this thing called life. You get one high school experience. One chance to be a teenager. Ten years in your 20s, 20 years in your 30s … *wink* and so on. We only get one amazing shot. I love that I’ve documented my way through it, starting when I did.
Plus, our memories really do suck. You think you have a great memory, but you don’t. Some of us can’t remember what we had for breakfast this morning, let alone something that happened 15 years ago.
Looking back at my high school planner, there are also so many codes and acronyms in my planner that have me thinking, what was I trying to hide? I distinctly remember some of them, but others have me like, huh?!
We don’t forget most major moments — first kiss, first date, wedding, birth of a child, heartbreak … but what about that amazing time you had with your best friend that you talked about weeks later? Or that time you had a tough conversation with someone. I love keeping these memories to revisit.
For instance, I broke up with one of my hs boyfriends on Friday, February 4, 2000, but I still bought him a birthday gift to school on Friday, February 25. so were we together or not?
One of my best friends and I went to the mall on Saturday, May 13, to take pictures. I love that I grew up in the “let’s get dressed in matching outfits and take pictures at the mall” era—one-hour glamour shots.
We would hand out the pictures to our friends the next day at school. I have sooooo many of these glamour shots from over the years. We’d keep a separate wallet on us with all the pictures of our friends. So when someone asked about your friends, you would whip out this stack of photos and tell stories about them, matching a name with a face.
We also used these 3x2 wallet-size pictures to give out our numbers or get numbers from cuties at the mall.
Photos tell lots of stories, but again, our memories still suck. In high school and college, I would make photo albums with descriptions underneath the pictures to remember what I was doing at that time or who was in the photo.
Whenever I look back at all my nostalgic things, I learn more about myself, or my memory goes one step further into the past.
I haven’t journaled in a planner in decades.
A couple of years ago, in my pre-kid life, I dabbled in decorating a planner as a hobby, getting all the stickers and colored pens to map out my weeks, goals, and lists. Once I pushed out a kid, all of that went away. There was no time to put a sticker on a page or make any plans.
But last Christmas, my mom got me this really plain-looking planner, like one you might pick up out the bargain bin at Office Depot.
My first thought was that I’m not about to use a paper planner. My schedule and to-dos live on my phone. But something reminded me of how I used to document my outfits and activities in my high school planner and I decided to use the planner as a daily journal. I’ve been going strong since. I love it. i love my basic office depot planner.
I have decades of journals across so many mediums. I have traditional notebook journals. I have Word documents. I used the DayOne app for almost 10 years. Last year I used Apple’s Journal app because I was trying to cut subscription costs and DayOne was costing me $35 a year; I was like … ahhhhhhhhhh!!
I’ve wanted to return to pen and paper for a while, just as I’ve wanted to get back to traditional blogging. Finally, my time has come to do both. for those who have been having lunch with me since 2020, you know i love telling a story.
I’ve been thinking about what to do with my high school notes, letters, and memories for years. I might have found a way to keep those memories alive and sharp in my mind while sharing some laughs and wild and crazy moments at lunch.
Are you down?!
