Staying at home mixed with spring cleaning has brought me, once again, down memory lane. Something in my heart compelled me to open up that bin of old journals and diaries that sits in the corner of my room, and what I found was nothing short of a time capsule of middle-school angst. Here are some of my favorite quotes from my diaries that are either beyond perplexing and are in need of further investigation or are simply perfect examples of what it felt like to be a kid during the 2010s.
April 19, 2009
This entry comes from a very difficult time in my life. I was eight and I had a lot on my mind.
“Dear Dairy,
I have a confeshun to make. I don’t know what to do. Should I be a rock star or a vet. I’ts very hard to disid.
Also I have 2 boyfriends (definitely not my boyfriend) and (also definitely not my boyfriend). But (not boyfriend 2) is getting old for me.
I you can diary write back as soon as possible. I hope you write back.
From,
Lainey”
Obviously, this is a hard-hitting entry that exposes the stress I was going through at the time. I regret to inform that my diary (or dairy) did not write back, and I have not chosen the path of a rock star nor a veterinarian. Neither of those people I mentioned were my boyfriend and I do not know why I would lie to my own diary…it seems a bit suspicious.
July 25, 2012
This entry comes from a summer writing camp, and I cannot begin to explain this one. On a blank page pointing to a page full of random, unrelated sentences:
“I feel like Katy Perry would have the same answers.”
When I was eleven, Katy Perry was my idol and she, apparently, held the answers to all of the world’s questions. When she sang, “do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind wanting to start again,” we all understood.
June 23, 2012
2012 is a year that feels so bizarre and surreal to many, including myself. The final sentence of this entry opens a door into what it felt like to be young and alive that summer.
“It was fun, I got a frappichino”
I was so excited about documenting the fact that I was given the opportunity to have the beverage of the summer, a Starbucks Frappuccino, that I neglected to put punctuation after the sentence and completely abandoned the entry after this statement.
February 3, 2013
I have a pretty detailed memory of my life, specifically about moments from school. However, when it comes to seventh grade, I could not tell you who my teachers were, who I was closest friends with or practically anything from that year. It has remained a mystery to me for some time now and reading my diaries from around that time thickens the plot further. Here is the only entry I have from that entire school year:
“Dear Diary,”
Yes, the single entry from an entire school year is a blank page besides the date and “Dear Diary.” I have detailed entries from the summers before and after that school year, but just this blank page to show for the entirety of seventh grade. If anyone would like to unpack that one, please let me know!
Summer 2012
Another entry that examines the glory of growing up during this era:
“I can TEXT now! My dad got an iPod touch and I can use it! I got braces too!”
This is something you could only hear if you were my age at this exact time. The thrill of being able to finally text your friends through your parent’s iPod Touch?! I remember being so excited to get braces…what a time to be alive.
Have you read your old diaries recently? These entries have given me a lot of good laughs and make me wonder what cringe-worthy things I am writing now…like this article?