Kirsten+Dahl+2014

Kirsten Dahl 1/2/14 The Diary

I think if you ask the average person, the average person who happens to keep a diary, if they do, in fact, keep a diary, many times the answer would be a false “no”. If they said yes, they would probably correct the asker, insisting that the keep a keep a journal instead, in order to separate themselves from the emotions and translucence of intentions that are so often associated with the word. This truth is all too telling of the sort of person that keeps a diary, daily, or close to daily, recording their lives in their own personal voice, along with the emotions that would be otherwise left untouched. This sort of person is a different sort of person than the common group might expect, I’ve found. Rather than the typical sappy teenage girl, endurer of all sorts of tragic happenings in her daily life, yet still optimistic of an impending fairy tale ending, in which, no doubt, her hair grows long and glossy and her skin remains completely blemish-free without an ounce of product, the real journaler is perhaps the underdog in this scenario. The real journaler is one who is quietly pensive, always observing the world around them. The two basic types I imagine, we’ll call them Type A and Type B, I can only recount here because I know for a fact they exist. Type A is the quiet writer. A quietly observes life constantly and their diary remains the only place they’ll be heard, whether it’s the truth or otherwise. This type is certainly closer to the Typical Journaler, often conveyed by novels and films. Type B, on the other hand is much more of a plot twist. B I imagine to be loud and boisterous in their everyday life, one with many friends, one who brushes off insults and digs like every little thing in life can be interpreted to be in jest. Than B is presented with their diary and everything about the world shifts, the sky becomes much darker, and the intentions of others take a nose dive, plummeting into villainous territory. The diary becomes a place where everything is much realer to the author, a ironic escape from the happy facade of their lives. Quite obviously, individuals of every make and model are potential material for the journaling fiend, but I present Types A and B to you, simply to contrast the fact from the fiction. I suppose the point of all this is to rid of fear of judgment for simply documenting your day, feelings in tow from that Typical Journaler. The real fear, perhaps, is in finding similarities between yourself and the Typical Journaler. No one wants to be weak, no one wants to be vulnerable, and certainly no one really wants their deepest thoughts available in print. The journaler is the risk taker; the risk lies in the rush of being weak. So we watch the weak become the risk takers, and the risk takers become the strong. And the strong are the journalers.