Before blogs...

In middle school, my friends and I kept shared notebooks. We would write notes to each other, or journal entries, or whatever in them, then trade them around between classes. The next person would write, then pass it back or on. Some were between two people--my friend Cassie and I kept one that was confiscated (later we broke into the principal's office to steal it back). Some were between whole groups of kids.



Kind of low-tech protoblogs. Group protoblogs, even.



In high school, in our Humanities class, we also kept semi-public journals. We were instructed to write once a day, about anything we wanted. Then at the end of each semester we turned them into the teachers who would either read them (if you gave permission) or not (if you denied permission). This class was taught by a group of teachers who rotated as the subjects changed--one would teach art history, one would teach philosophy or whatever. I allowed permission to all but one teacher. When it came time to turn my journal into her, I counted the pages, folded them over and stapled them shut. I wrote the page number (so she could verify that I'd been writing daily--we received a grade for this) on the front. I just didn't like her, though now I can't remember why not.



I guess this might sound weird to some, but these teachers were popular and we loved them, and we liked writing things knowing they would read them. At least I did. One of them wrote (they had the option to write back to you in your journal if they were so moved), "I could read your writing all day." The best encouragement ever. A couple of troubled students confessed things they might not have otherwise had the courage to confess, asked for help they may not otherwise have had the nerve to request.



I wonder if I still have those books.



I kept my own journals too--from age 14 to about 24, then kind of drifted out of the habit. I have all of those old journals somewhere. I keep notebooks now, but not journals. Just notes for poems, and on whatever I'm reading. I've talked about those here before.



I stopped journaling because I didn't need to anymore. I turned the journaling impulse outward, toward another person.



He still listens.