I unearthed a forgotten trove of journals when I was trying to locate one of my old travel journals to plan for my next holiday! 

I marveled at how legible my handwriting was! ? Back in 1998! Now, it has been reduced to a scrawl, though not quite up to the standard of the “Doctor font” yet. (Sigh! It goes to show that no matter how badly I write, I don’t have the potential to be a doctor. Oh well!)

I posted the picture in FB and some very wonderful friends praised my ex-handwriting. Ok! For that, I’ll endeavour to improve my current standard!! 

Some others were surprised that I actually kept journals. Yes! I did and I still do (very sporadically now). I’m still quite old school. I need to scribble on something for my ideas to take shape. 

I used to write in my diaries every day. When I go through them now, memories come back to me and yet they felt like a few lifetimes away. Those were part of me and yet, there’s no way I can write like that now. Not at this point of my life, with the current state of mind. I kind of miss the old me, with a naive set of idealism and can-do attitude (to the point of being “ti ki”). Ah! How nice it was, to be young, to have the “anything can be done” ??????, the silly squabbles, the shallow crushes. 

Looking back now, it seems that I had a whole lot more fun than what I have right now. It’s a chore to be a grown up! But at least I’ve had my good old wild days! Been there, done that!

Maybe, just maybe, one day, I can make the choice to unshackle myself from the mundane responsibilities and liabilities and be wild again?! But by then, already become old auntie already leh. Sigh…!

Everyone should start journaling! You will be surprised to read what you are writing now, 20 years later! It’s like recovering parts of your life. ?

*ti ki – hokkien for metal teeth. Aka persistent.