the weight of having secrets that only exist in your journal - Lemmy.World

I have entries in my journal that would fundamentally change how certain people see me if they read them. Not because I’ve done anything terrible, but because the real me doesn’t match the version people know. The person who seems confident at work writes about feeling like a fraud every night. The friend who always has it together writes about falling apart at 2am. The family member who seems happiest writes about the weight of performing happiness. These secrets sit in my journal and sometimes the gap between who I am on paper and who I am in public feels enormous. Like I’m two separate people. I wonder if everyone’s journal contains a version of themselves that would surprise the people around them. If we’re all walking around holding these private truths. Do your journal secrets weigh on you or liberate you?