this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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I wish I had a journal/diary when I was a kid. Its so hard to recall those memories and try to relive it again. Does anyone here do journaling? Do y'all think about memories often? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works to c/casualconversation@piefed.social
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I don't have very detailed recollection of events, I remember like the equivalent of a one paragraph summary for entire events that should have like 5 pages of detail. I feel like I'm missing parts of me. Brains sucks so much when it comes to storage capacity.

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[–] Libb@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I do and have been doing so for 50 years or so, since I was a little boy in the 70s, learning to deal with everything that was not so great happening with and around me. And I will agree with you: I would feel incomplete if I was not journaling regularly. Regularly, because I've had and still have periods in my life where I don't journal much if at all, but I know it's always a temporary phase.

The great thing is that even though you can't write back the journals you have not written back then, you can easily do two things:

  1. Start journaling today. No need to invest much, be it in time or money (buying fancy notebooks or apps).
  2. Start a 'past journal', like someone writing their souvenirs or memoirs. I will often do that after one of those pauses I mentioned, as a way to keep a record of what I remember.

BTW, if you're interested in journaling, or anyone if anyone else is, I'm the admin of a journaling community over there: !journaling@sh.itjust.works

Not much is going on for the time being as I had to put my regular posting on hold for now but we gained a lot of new subscribers, like a lot. So, I know there is interest in that topic it's probably just that people seem to be shy about sharing their personal experience. So, you're more than welcome to start a new topic to share your experience and questions (and also your frustration) as I'm sure al lot of people should be able to understand that, and maybe give you suggestions.

I remain convinced posting more is the only way to encourage people to start participating more and is also the best way, hopefully, to give newcomers the opportunity to start their own journaling journey. Alas, for the time being I've very little time to do that myself but I would still love to further discuss your remarks, if you ever feel like it.

Edit: clarifications.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was about to tag you, happy to see you already commented!

[–] Libb@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Thx, appreciate the intention :)

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So... digital vs physical?

[–] Libb@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been doing both, the longest is obviously analog but I've been doing digital since the 90s (and was a happy user of DayOne back when it was first introduced). For the last few years, I'm fully back to analog without any plan to go back to digital: privacy concerns plus I prefer pen and paper ;)

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So how do you keep them safe? Since its not digital, its hard to back up. One fire and its all gone.

[–] Libb@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I don't bother much about keeping them safe. Something I think we discussed in the journaling community but I can't recall when and if that's not the case, the is more than worth discussing it over there ;)

Short answer: it's not hard (nor long) to take snapshots/scans of each new page. But it may also not be that important... it all depends how you view your journal.

[–] ethaver@kbin.earth 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

not since my sister and mother used to read it together. sometimes I still get kinda angry that they traumatized me out of a decent coping mechanism. have been thinking about using a constructed alphabet that doesn't map well to the Latin alphabet but I need to finish memorizing the characters. might also figure out how to mix bullet journaling with the sacred geometries just for maximum chaos.

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

I wrote at 13 I wanted to move to New York City. My step fsther read it, (thank goodness it was just that one) and gave me a lecture/beating because "I'm not just going to abandon him and go live a dream in the city, leaving him to rot where he stands". Fucking delightful stuff.

I hate people. You shouldn't have to write a constructed alphabet for privacy.

[–] calliope@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 week ago

I learned about Elian script last week and appreciated how different the characters can become written out!

[–] nikosey@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

i had a 6 month sabbatical a couple years ago and decided to try some solo international travel. i had never traveled solo before and worried it would be lonely. but it was solo or nothing, so i went. no regrets.

in the evenings id spend time writing in a journal about that day. I'm not really a journal guy but it was a good fit for solo travel. something to do when everything was closed and i felt like it helped me get more out of the trips.

mine were on my laptop. later when i got home i moved them online and spent some time editing them and adding lots of photos from my trips and links to my videos. so they morphed into whatever you would call that.

i also have a terrible memory. if you get a chance to go somewhere cool, id highly recommend journaling as part of your trip!

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I had about 20 journals I kept from when I was a teen. I grew up, pretty terribly with severe abuse, and the memories in them were my traumas. I kept them though. Toted them along with me for a long time.

In my early 30s I went through it, and got rid of some of the darkest stuff, but kept some. The remainder went up in a fire about 4 years ago. I was sad, but it was time to let go. Felt good to ditch the bin full of trauma. I felt like I've mostly healed

Today I can easily sum up youth in a paragraph, and I'm okay with that.

[–] adhocfungus@midwest.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I apparently have blocked out most of my childhood and teen years. Part of me is glad for that, but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm making up the memories I do have. My mom certainly claims none of the abuse ever happened. Having journals, even just to read once and then burn, would help me feel less crazy.

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I definitely can understand that. If it's important to you, you could start writing what you remember today. My parents also seem to forget the pain they caused, too coward to face it I think, so they forget it and hit denial.

You're still you with or without the written memory though. Our working memory is the best we have. Electronically, or written on paper, both forms can be lost. Our memories once, well, coded? into our minds, can never be taken, who we are, can never be taken.

I'm certain there are things/events I've forgotten. It's like seeing an old photo with a shirt you liked, and wondering, wherever they hell did that shirt go? Perchance if you don't remember some of your childhood, and would like to, you could even simply write your questions? Maybe working your mind this way could open lost memory.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I need time to mull over my thoughts but I'm pretty well rooted.

I used to feel like more like this when I was in my early twenties. I simply do not recall things on the fly unless I am already in that thinking space overall.

There are also phases and external factors. Like when I am reading or trying really hard to learn something new, my mind tends to miss stupid obvious stuff in spelling and grammar. I used to let it bug me, but just don't care any more. All humans are a spectrum and anyone that expects perfection in all is a fool. To pretend I am not human has lost its impetus.

It was kinda funny the way I had painted cars for years and then stopped for a couple. When I went back to it, the skill was a bit awkward. I realized a lot about myself and skills during that process. In particular I had to learn about organizational efficiency and management from things I had taken for granted.

In the intermediate space I had worked heavy equipment, welding, and had done some really rough work. It was like the polar opposite of the persistent tedious finesse of painting cars. It took me a few months to really get in the swing of painting again, like working on a half dozen cars at once and overlapping the hundred steps of each so that mixing batches of materials works on all at the same times, but only in ways that are time efficient with the work times of certain materials.

Swapping skills like that is hard and reveals a lot about what you may actually remember. Like I am really good at Case controls on an excavator, Bob cats, front end loaders, and mig/tig/stick welding. I also do airbrush graphics, lettering, flame jobs, realistic style flames, old school flake, and candy (dye based colors). My favorites are understated ghost style stuff with unexpected complexity. I was also a buyer for a chain of bike shops, and do quite a few other niche skills. All of these take a bunch of time for me to think within each space and all the related details.

When I think back to my childhood, it feels like I do not have much I recall, but if I pick some specific even or time and just keep focusing on the time and place with peripheral events, I remember a ton of details in bits and pieces over the course of a few weeks.

I always have several threads of thought I am thinking about like this in concurrent memory. Like right now I'm primary wrapping my head around how to program a Z80 with a threaded interpreter I am yet to write. And comparing it to some 6502 stuff.

Just focus on it, and don't force yourself. You'll likely remember far more than you imagine. We're all a spectrum of possibilities where you do not have to be like anyone else. Just discover what works for you.

[–] splendoruranium 3 points 1 week ago

I don't do journaling... but I'm still lugging around all my old ICQ and IRC chatlogs and haven't stopped hoarding my own conversations ever since. I guess that kind of counts?

[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

I'd rather forget.