When and Where It All Began...

I began my obsession with journal keeping in the third grade. I had just moved to a new school in Oceanside, California, after my parents decided they needed to leave cookie-cutter suburban Mission Viejo. They purchased two-and-a-half acres of dirt in the sticks of San Diego where they could build a custom home. My mother wanted to live by the beach, my dad wanted land. He won the battle on where they would live, so we leased by the beach while the house was being built. Back to third grade. My teacher gave us a writing journal where we daily wrote pretty much whatever we wanted. I was new to the school and found a friend in my journal; a confidant, someone to talk to. At the ripe old age of 8, I didn't have too much to say, but I realized I loved to write in my journal...and I never stopped. Pictured on the left is the cover and below is my very first journal entry.

I think I thought everything was very "nice", which is nice. I'm not sure about all the random art and why I said "poor doggy". I did at one point want people to call me "Dee" because I was tired of everyone telling me my first name was a last name or not a girl's name. I even had one elderly gentleman tell me my parents were mean to name such a pretty young girl such an awful name...then proceeded to tell me the least they could have done was name me "Mavis". No, thank you. That lasted for one school year and decided to go back to "Davis", thank goodness. Keep turning the pages with me!