Life is short, time goes too quickly, things get better: what I learned from reading my old journals | Brigid Delaney

Reviewing more than 20 years of my inner world was often painful but some universal lessons emerged from the pages

Recently I came across a dusty box in the garage that was full of old journals that held all my secrets from 1996.

Rereading them was excruciating, painful even, like hearing a recording of your own voice. Do I (did I) really sound like that? I reread the diaries out of sequence (1999 becomes 2012 becomes 2006) to lessen the shock of a past me unfurling and escaping from the pages like a genie. To be back there so vividly felt like a profound jolt - unnatural even. I had to take it slowly, taking in little bits at a time. Often I didn't recognise myself. Who was this person who did those wonderful things, who took stupid risks, fretted about things that turned out to be unimportant, loved the wrong people, who had all these feelings?