I have used journals, (notebooks), most of my life. In some I would paste pictures and poems, quotes and stories that I liked from magazines and junk mail. Mostly things that were up-beat and made me smile when I read them.
In another journal I wrote about my life, with caption headings, my age at the time of each entry. That way I could pick up and start writing about my feelings or happenings at any given time during the year. There are gaps in my notebooks where I was too sad to write, or didn't want to share my feelings even with my notebook. Sometimes I was worried that someone would find and read my journels, thus I kept my thoughts to my self.
Now that I am older I wish I had filled in those blank pages, so I would know where my mind was at during that time.
I have saved every letter that I received from my friends and my family from the time I was a young girl. However, the things they write about don't seem to fit in with my memories, thus although I treasure them, I can not relate to them. I find that confusing. I have a lot of blanks in my memory.