Going through the four boxes of stuff that I brought back to my apartment with me (and promptly throwing the majority of it away), I came upon something that piqued my curiosity: The Journal Of Brandon German. Was I describing possession of the journal using Spanish form, or just attempting to make the title evoke thoughts of Anne Frank? I didn’t stop to ponder; instead, I opened the light blue folder that contained the thoughts of a tenth-grade boy.
Oh, man. You want to talk about bad writing? This was “Wince and shake your head” bad. This was “Saved By The Bell plotline and dialogue” bad. This was “How in the world did I graduate high school?” bad. Reading the journal, laughing at the sheer inadequacy of it all, a thought struck me: was I the epitome of male teen angst, or what?
I’d give you a sample of this, ahem, literary work, but 1) I wouldn’t be able to find anything in it that wouldn’t embarrass me entirely, and 2) I’ve already thrown it away. It did make for some pretty funny reading for me for about 20 minutes, though.
Don’t feel bad…I shudder to think that somewhere, I might have kept some of my “Oh my gosh! A girl said hey to me!” writings, which eventually led to the “Why doesn’t [insert name here] like me back?” whinings. Of course, pretty much all the poems were just off-the-wall. And then there’s the introspective “Why can’t this spiritual high last longer than the week after camp?” pieces…
Brandon German! I can’t believe you threw that away! Your kids would have loved to have read that. Thanks for the update though. 🙂
Surely you’re kidding about throwing away your ‘old days of journaling’?? 😉