What if someone reads my journal?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa on March 8, 2008 at 1:42am

I've had a couple of bad experiences with people reading my journal, but that's not really the root of why I censor myself. When I was in junior high I read "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl". It was one of the things that inspired me to start journaling, but at the same time I realize now I have almost always written as if one day my journals will be found and at least read, and maybe even published. How crazy is it to be concerned about what people think about me after I'm gone?? It's a hard habit to break.

Permalink Reply by Poetry Girl aka mytruestory85 on April 12, 2008 at 6:08pm

Hmm.. that was definitely an issue for me as well. I started to journal in 1996 or 1997, don't remember it clearly but journaled for almost 5 years. It's always been a write and hide thing, not that I had something to hide but like most of you it's just that I would feel uncomfortable if someone read it.. In my first diaries I wrote a lot about my dreams as I had a lot of them at that time and also my thoughts about things and people and of course I didn't want to upset anyone. I took my diary everywhere even on some vacation trips with school and one day I saw two friends reading my diary. You could imagine my reaction but then I stopped writing so often also because of this but also because a friend said that it is stupid to write diaries and that I cannot talk about my problems etc. that bothers me and so I unfortunately listened to her and lost lost of valuable memories .. that I haven't recorded.. I still remember some of the events but not so much in details as if I had written it down. However, due to this, I started to make an electronic diary on my computer and this worked much better for me. In addition I didn't write it in my mother language anymore but in English as I also saw my mum once reading it. So, then I just thought to either stop with it as I am old for writing diaries or go on with it but change the language and so I decided to write it either in English or in Italian and the choice was easily made. and so I switched the language and from that time on my parents weren't able to read my diary anymore.

Oh God, while writing this I remember that my mum once said (in a joke) that she will give my diary to someone to translate it to her :) She was only joking because she is still wondering why I am writing even though I am 22, so she wonders what is so interesting that I sometimes can write a long page.

It's not like I have something to hide, but it feels good to have a place where you can go to after having a bad day or anything like that, to pour my thoughts on a blank page and knowing that I am the only person to read it. It feels good to read pages after a certain period of time and seeing that some things weren't that bad as they seemed at first. and yes I was also worried about what other people might think about me after reading my diary but this worry got less and less with the time.

I know one thing for sure is that I will encourage my brother to keep a diary as well one day and btw, I have been just inspired you all how great it is to keep a diary and how great it can be to save moments in life, that I just started to keep a separate diary about my brother where I write from time to time about some funny things that he said or did so far and I will show him that when he asks me about his life and how he was as a child :) it's so exciting to know that I will show it to him one day and he will definitely appreciate those little captures of his early life. =)

Permalink Reply by Belle on May 21, 2008 at 3:42am

I always hated rereading my diaries, made me throw them away. always so whingey and annoying. would like literary journals like sylvia plath but get - oh so and so was wrecking my head to day and everythings horrible!!!

Permalink Reply by DonnaOnTheBeach on May 21, 2008 at 3:55pm

I threw all my teenage diaries away for this reason...and now I really regret it. That poor girl was just doing her best and I was embarrassed by her - nothing to be ashamed of (I see now!), but they made me CRINGE! xx

Permalink Reply by Jenna on May 27, 2008 at 1:49pm

You know, I used to be paranoid about this but it seems that over the last year I have really put things on the table so to speak. If I write it in my journal I almost always end up saying whatever it is out loud to whomever needs to hear it. Writing it down in the journal helps me gather my thoughts and feeling on the subject to be able to better articulate when I do speak my mind.

Permalink Reply by Nadia on August 13, 2009 at 9:00pm

I don`t like journaling BECAUSE i`m scared of someone reading it. But I think if i`m scared or afraid I want to write it out. I haven't journaled in 1 1/2 I did when i was 13 but now i`m 15 and I have`nt yet but reading about your book makes me want to journal anyway.

Permalink Reply by Nadia on August 13, 2009 at 9:05pm

I think I know why I am afraid of writing in my journal it`s because theres this part of me that I have but you don`t want anyone to know kinda feeling and it`s like if they knew they wouldn`t treat you the same or they may hate you or love you or whatever your feeling at that moment when you write it`s like you can really and TRULY be yourself even if it`s just you your journal and your mind.

Permalink Reply by Rachie B on July 26, 2010 at 11:21am

I used to (and do again now) write in my journal completely from the heart, until my boyfriend read it, in some ways it is good that he did because the brutal honesty in my journal forced us both to confront the problems we were having together. It took me a while to get back into writing from the heart again, but i do now, i realised this insight (that him reading it and something good coming from it) from journal writing. but now if he does ever read it again it will be a symptom of problems we are having but at the moment if he read it all he would have it to smile because things are so much better now we faced our problems (shame he's not going to read it really lol). xXx

Permalink Reply by Donna Stirnkorb on February 2, 2011 at 7:39pm

Since this is an online journal, is there anything private about the blog entries? Or is it just out there for everyone on the site to see? I'm new here...a journaling instructor I took last term told me about this site...and I'm not sure how it works.

 

Thanks,

Donna

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