Cranky Jennie ;-p

Every summer I travel back to my childhood NY home. I look forward to seeing family and old friends. It allows me to reflect and reminisce about all sorts of things.

On this trip, I had the added bonus of reading my old diaries. These diaries were recordings of my thoughts from 7^th grade to senior year of high school.

The fun of reading your old diaries is remembering events you thought were important and being surprised by things you had long since forgotten.

Here are some of the lessons I learned from reading those books:

1. I thought I was fat and ugly for most of my teenage life.

2. I lied to myself.

3. The girl I thought was my childhood best friend was ALWAYS selfish. I just refused to see it.

4. I swore I would never, ever have a boyfriend.

5. I hated my hometown for a very long time.

6. I was wholeheartedly in love with at least 25 boys who didn’t even know I existed.

7. Having friends talk to the boys you liked didn’t help matters at all.

8. I was (and am) my own worst critic.

9. Falling in love for the first time was magical.

10. Obsessing about things you can’t change still won’t change them!!!

I thought about burning those books, so there would be no proof they ever existed. However, they are really entertaining (only to me, of course). I think it might be fun to read them again in a few years and see how I have changed (or not changed).

Obviously, over the years there is growth and maturity, but I think my core personality has remained pretty constant. That said, I have a lot of patience for people and their foibles, but once you piss me off, watch out!!! (Yes, she really did deserve it when I smacked her and threatened to beat the crap out of her. I should have done it sooner and ended the friendship then and there. Hindsight really is 20/20).

So, if you know a young person, inspire them to write. They may find wisdom in those notebooks years from now