2:34

March 12th, 1991

Today at the store, my mom bought me this notebook that I’m going to use as a journal.  I call it a journal and not a diary because diaries are for girls.  

I guess I should introduce myself like parents and teachers always get us to.  My name is Bradley.  I’m 9 years old, but I will be 10 in a few months.  I have an older sister named Jill and an older brother named Eric.  Jill is 16 and Eric is 13.  That makes me the youngest.  I like to skateboard and go for bicycle rides, I like to read books, and I play hockey.  I don’t really know what else to say about myself.  I’m kind of boring.

Right now, Eric is playing Nintendo, and Jill is getting ready for work.  She works at a fast food restaurant.  I’m glad that I don't have a job.  Jill always seems tired and grumpy when she comes home after working.

After I’m done writing in this, I’m going to go play Nintendo with Eric.

I think this journal will be fun and a good way to remember things.  But I hope nobody reads it, just in case I say something secretive or embarrassing.  I should try and find a good hiding spot for it.  I’ll put it somewhere that I know it’s there, but nobody else will.  

I’ll probably write in this journal every time I have something that I can’t tell other people.  When I’m grown up, it’ll be fun and cool to read what I said when I was a kid.  Hopefully I don’t lose this journal once I get older.  I wonder if I’ll write in here a lot…

I’m going to go play Nintendo with Eric now.  I’ll write again soon and I’ll try to write as much as I can every few days.

~~~

It’s only been a couple of hours since I last wrote, but I wanted to write again.  When I was playing Nintendo, I thought about where I could hide my journal when I don’t have it with me.  Under the basement stairs, I have a little area that’s basically just mine.  That is where I’m sitting right now while writing this.  It’s not a fort or anything, but I have a desk and chair there, and I have these pieces of cardboard that I use as walls.  It’s really cool because I can go there and be alone.

My desk has a couple of drawers.  I keep notebooks and toys in them, so I can easily hide my journal in there.  I don't think anyone ever goes through my desk, but just in case, I’ll put my journal at the bottom of a drawer at the very back.

That’s all I wanted to write for now.  Bye for now.

March 13th, 1991

Right now, it is 8:05am.  I’m in the car.  My mom is taking Jill to a dentist appointment, then she is going to drop me off at school.  Not much to say now.  I just wanted to write something in my new journal.  It’s pretty cool to have this journal and to carry it around with me.  I haven’t written much yet, but I think it will make times like these less boring, where I’m usually just sitting in the car.

~~~

It is now 6:05pm.  School was the same as usual.  Nothing exciting happened.  I’m kind of tired, so I don’t know how much I will write tonight, even though I want to write.

I said yesterday that I am 9 years old, but I didn’t say that I’m in the 4th grade.  My teacher is okay.  Her name is Mrs. Marahn.  She’s nice, but class can be pretty boring.  I guess all classes are like that, though, no matter who the teacher is.  I’m pretty good in classes like History and English, but I’ve never been very good at math.  Who cares about math anyways?

It’s suppertime now, so I have to go.  I’ll write more on Wednesday.

March 17th, 1991

It is Sunday today.  I didn’t write on Wednesday like I said that I would.  I guess I just didn’t have anything to write.

Today I had a soccer game.  It’s indoor soccer because it’s winter, and it snows too much this time of year to play outside.  It was the final tournament and last game of the season.  My team won 4-2.  I got one of the goals.  I’m pretty good at soccer, and I got a lot of goals during the season, but it is over now.

At the end of April, I start outdoor soccer.  I think I like outdoor soccer better than indoor soccer.  It’s bigger and I like running outside instead of in a small school gym.

I also play hockey, but I think I mentioned that already.  The season ended a little bit before I got this journal, so I’m not playing hockey right now until next winter.

That’s all for now.  I’ll write again soon.

April 5th, 1991

Right now it is 11:17pm.  It’s late.  I’m not usually allowed up this late, but it’s Friday night and I’m in my bedroom in bed anyways.  I’ll go to sleep soon, but I want to write for a little bit first.  This weekend is going to be fun, and today at school was scary and exciting, so that is what I will write about.

Tomorrow, I am going to my friend Greg’s birthday party.  On Sunday, I am going to my other friend James’ birthday party.  For Greg’s party, we are going to a swimming pool.  At James’ party we are going to indoor rock climbing.  I think that they will both be fun, but I’ve never been rock climbing before, so I think I’m more excited for that one.

Yesterday, near my school, there were gun shots.  My school got locked down and we all had to sit on the floor away from windows.  Teachers told us that there was one shot taken at an empty school bus at another school that is kind of close to my school, one shot at a car windshield with a man in it but the shot didn’t go through, and they took three shots at a house with people in it.

Because we had to be at school later than usual (we didn’t go home until around 5pm), we got snacks since everyone was hungry.  After that, everyone’s parents had to pick them up.  

At first, even though it was scary, I liked not having to do our regular schoolwork, but then when we had to stay at school for almost two hours longer than we usually do, it was a lot less fun.

It turned out to be 12-year-old and 14-year-old kids shooting a pellet gun, not a real gun.  It was still pretty scary, though.  Everyone is saying they are spending the weekend in jail, but the police don’t know what they’ll do with them after that.

It’s getting late, so I’d better sleep now.  

May 6th, 1991

It is 8:44pm.  I am going to bed soon.  I can’t believe I didn’t write for a whole month.  I haven’t even had this journal for that long yet and I already stopped writing for such a long time.  I’ll try and be better about that.

Yesterday I got a new watch and a hat (Mom bought them for me).  I don’t usually like wearing watches because they feel so tight on my wrist, but I like this one.  It looks cool.  It’s blue and gold, and the numbers glow in the dark.

Today from 4:30pm-6:30pm, I had a soccer clinic where we learned some cool stuff, including tricks to use in games like spins and juggling.  I think I’ll try some of the tricks at my next soccer game.  It might be hard, though, with other people trying to get the ball.  I’m pretty good at soccer, but I don’t know that I’m that good.

June 1st, 1991

It’s my birthday today!  I am now 10 years old.  There’s nothing really special about being 10.  I guess now my age has two digits, but that’s all.  When I turn 13 I’ll be a teenager, but until then, there’s nothing that special about how old I’ll be.

For my birthday, my mom and dad got me some brick building sets, a new soccer ball, a couple of books, and a movie poster.  I already put the poster up in my room and I am going to put the brick building sets together after I finish writing in this journal.

I am having my birthday party next weekend.  Since it’s almost summer, all of my friends are going to bring their water guns and we are going to have a big water fight at the park by my house.

I want to play with my new brick building sets, so I’m going to stop writing now.

July 25th, 1991

Today is Eric’s birthday.  We are going to go for supper right away to celebrate, so I can only write for a little bit.  If I don’t finish writing before we go, maybe I’ll bring my journal in the car and finish writing.

Right now it is summer holidays, which means I haven’t had to do any homework.  It’s been awesome.

Sorry I haven’t been writing much lately.  Even though I don’t have homework, I’ve been busy.  My family went camping a couple of weeks ago.  It only rained once while we were there, but it happened overnight so it didn’t ruin any of our plans.  We got to go swimming at the lake, which was nice since it was so hot, and we played games like hide and go seek at night.  Me and Eric also brought our baseball gloves and played catch a couple of times with my dad.

One night, we were sitting around the campfire and we heard a noise.  It turned out to be a raccoon trying to get into one of our coolers.  Me and my Eric ended up chasing it away with our fire poker sticks.  Mom and Dad weren’t too happy about that.  The raccoon was fast, so we didn’t catch it or anything.  After that, we made sure we kept our cooler and other stuff in the car.

We are going for supper now