What do you do with old journals?

I keep stuff like that.  I am pretty sure once I am no longer around I won't care much.....

I still have stuff from over 25 years ago myself.  I'm a packrat, too.

You might need them to write your award-winning Autobiography.

I would suggest you keeping them - that's the purpose of writing journals, right? 

But I got rid of mine and stopped writing when I found out someone was trying to read them.

Well, I thought maybe I could get one last "read" out of them...10+ years later is enough time away for the stuff to be interesting again.

Then destroy all evidence!!!!

I say post them on BT.

A good friend of mine has all of hers in a secret hiding spot. One of her friends is instructed to go get the journals and destroy them immediately upon her death. My friend would never want to be responsible for the amount of emotional distress her journals would cause to her family and friends if they were to find them and read them. She puts EVERYTHING in her journals and uses them as a way to vent, and she knows they would really hurt the people she loves most if they were to read them. She trusts this one friend to destroy them without reading them, but also knows that if this person did by chance read them that she is the one person who would not take them personally and not share what's in them with anyone else.

I've kept diaries on and off throughout my life, but never really followed through. Besides, I would mostly write when I was mad or upset...and that's not stuff I would want to go back and read. My college roommate always kept a journal, and before leaving our senior year she went back and read some stuff she had written in there about when we first met (we were randomly assigned as roommates our freshman year and were still roommates our senior year -- great friends). It was quite funny.

Oh, that could work if you could do some kind of safety deposit box that would pass to your friend upon your death or something like that.

However, I am probably  not that desperate yet.  I was thinking about starting one that I would be that desperate about, but I'm talkin' about FAIRLY harmless things like, well, I don't want to get this thread pulled....so I won't say it.

Edited to add:  Not so sure that your friends idea would work if it wasn't something like a safety deposit box.  I mean, depending upon the circumstances of death they could prevent anyone from going into the house, etc.

I think a safety deposit box would be the best bet or something like...does anyone remember that MASH episode where Col Potter is the last survivor of a group of five and they had a legal type person store their bottle of booze to open?  I bet there are companies like that out there too.

this is the only forum I know that has no delete option

Oh. You should send them to me!  I will keep them safe for you. Really.  No problem.  Please. Please. Please.  ....I guess I shouldn't sound so desperate.

What are you worried about?  It would probably like listening to the nuns confessions at the abbey.  You think not?  Well, give me some examples.  ....That might work. One more try.

We have this research problem where we are trying to figure out how people turn out to be who they are as adults.  We really have a big data gap on kick- engineer bomber pilot females.  Your data is crucial to our research.  Please forward to the address below. ....Am I getting any better?

Take care Jen.  Be careful.

TW 

I have the same problem with my old journals. I wrote heaps when I was a teenager and then I stopped dead as soon as I hit my 20's, I just didn't feel the need anymore. Anyway, they're just plain embarassing, but everytime I try to throw them out, I can't bring myself to. I've almost done it several times. Maybe I am just not ready to let go yet

Finding old journals/diaries embarrassing is good. It indicates personal growth on your part.

But, I think it was Mae West who said, "Keep a diary and one day it will keep you!"

If you don't want people reading your journals make sure they are hidden well...