Read through my missionary journal

[BriansThoughtMirror]

I'm keeping mine. I agree that they are a record of me, and how I became who I am. Memories are incredibly fallible. I want the real record of what I was feeling at a given time. When we look back, we reinterpret what happened. We re-create the memories in context of what we know, think, and feel now. I've been surprised numerous times when I've recalled some past event that felt burned into my memory, and then compared my memory with what I had written in my journal at the time. Major details, thoughts, motivations, etc. were way off. I don't want to lose the real me.

(And I'm pretty sure a lot of what I wrote on my mission would make me want to hurl. But I'm also proud of that guy!)