:: Dear Diary...

Did you write a diary when you were a kid?

The Open Book Project is an initiative of The Reach Foundation, Jim Stynes' amazing powerhouse of positivity for young people.  Reach is an awesome forum for kids.  Both Rin and Max have attended Reach (and me too!) and I can testify that it's a pretty great experience.  It's sort of like having the clock wound back to your teenage years (without the mean girls), where you are tucked into a room chock full of almost-adults, sharing ideas and thoughts and worries and hopes.  I actually felt pretty tiny amongst those kids, because they all have so much good stuff waiting to bust out of them (or already busting out of them!) It's pretty eye opening and motivating, I think. Definitely something you would want to support, I think.  

The Open Book Project is inviting you to share a page from your childhood diary, or if you don't have one you can re-create an entry.  The idea is to celebrate and normalise those teenage feelings that we all go through.  I guess some of us go through more than others, and some of us feel things a bit more deeply too.  A diary entry can reveal that, and maybe there is someone who will totally identify with your teenage pennings.  Maybe there is someone who feels like a total dork, and they might feel a bit less dorky if they can see how dorky we all were (are!)  Do you want to share your dorkiness?

You can submit your page here.  And you can see other entries by really great people (like Chrissie Swan "Howdy. Guess what? I got my first BRA!' : Celia Pacquola "I got with him. With tongue and everything!" : Kate Ceberano "I'm practicing crying in the mirror today" : Sigrid Thornton "Mum and I were put in a van and taken to the police station") here.

I threw my diary in a dumpster when I lived in Canberra. I was about sixteen.  My diary was about 15 exercise books all stuck together. FILLED with stuff. Argh. I wish I did not throw it away.  I thought I was so grown up, and that the diary signified the child in me. So I threw it away. Sob.  My friend Yvonne has a matching diary, because we used to write our diaries together, so I think there might be some pages in there which I wrote.... I hope....!  If not I will write an entry about the time I kissed Karl Heinz at the South Hedland Pool.  Outside the girls toilets.  Near the diving pool. Good grief.  I did not even really like him. Sigh.

Do you want to do this with me?

xx Pip