Dear Diary

In fourth grade my class was required to journal a page a day. Every morning, we'd reluctantly reach into our desks, retrieve handmade diaries, and scratch out our entries with audible groans of mental suffering. Sometimes our teacher Mr. Harvey wrote questions on the blackboard to get us writing about our lives and experiences. More often than not, we were left to our own devices and invariably resorted to writing each other letters. The recipient of the letter was usually whichever girl had a birthday - and consequently, a SLUMBER PARTY - approaching. Our poorly-suppressed maniacal anticipation of a whole night playing Girl Talk and watching Mac and Me was the only subject we could think of that warranted an entire page of composition.

All this arduous writing resulted in a silly collection of 4th grade thoughts that I treasure today. It's amazing and a bit embarrassing to realize how many of the impressions I had as a 10-year-old ring true to me as a 27-year-old. Somewhere inside my brain, there's a prepubescent blonde monkey still running rampant.

These are some of the things she said in 1989:

"...I think I have inproved on a lot of things. One of them is manners. Last year I was a pain. I know this because this year my best friend told me."

"These are some of the things that I thought about this weekend: Having a cold. Going to grandma's house. Going to school. The elections. Church. I had alot more to think about, but here is what I did: I got a cold."

"Life is great! This morning we had an assembly in the cafeteria. Officer Don was there talking about drugs. It was SO fun."

"Latly I've been thinking about how I've been acting for god. Not to good I think."

"Dear Presidents from before,
This Friday the United States will have its 41st President sworn into office (whatever that means)..."

"Yesterday afternoon a new girl came in class... she's real nice, plays kickball pretty good... she's a pretty good reader, but she seems to have a small mental problem and she dosn't catch on very well on the recorder, very well."

"I'm not going to speak out of turn or anything else that's immature. Today in math I won't yell out the answer or in science I won't ask to read. I'll just raise my hand."

"Today I have made up my mind to break up with Matt. I've asked him out about one hundred times last year and I kept breaking up with him each time, but this is the last time I'll ever go out with him. It's not right to have puppy love for a boy at my age. Especially when it's just puppy love. I've been faking it out the whole time. I only asked him out because I wanted a boyfriend."

"When I grow up I want to be a gospel rock singer. The only thing is I don't know if God wants me to. I hope to find out before I make up my mind."