A 16-year-old high school student, Madie Cardon, just released her elementary school diary for the world to see. Madie, amongst many other children, had a hard knock life. She declares in her diary that she struggles with depression, and that the day before Valentine’s day is especially hard because of her unforbidden love, Riley.
On 13 Feb. 2008, Madie writes this into her diary, “Dear Diary, I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I think I have depression. Today at school my crush Riley was chasing other girls on the playground! I thought he liked me. And guess who he was chasing! Jessica! She is such a player! She hugs at least 5 boys every day! I am so mad at her. I think I will tell Riley her secret. She wears pull ups! After he finds out he won’t like her anymore.”
We’ve all had a diary entry like Madie’s 13 of February words. We’ve all felt the agonizing pain of the love of our life (our Riley’s) chasing someone else around on the playground, and we’ve all thought about how we are so much better than our Jessica’s. However, was our Jessica’s unforbidden secret that they were pull ups? I wish. Then I would have totally felt like I was better than Jessica because I was potty trained early on.
On 14 Feb. 2008, Madie wrote, “My depression is getting stronger. Today is Valentine’s Day. I made Riley a Valentine. Me and Katelyn stayed up all night making it. Before Riley got to school I put it in his desk. (number 22 <3). When he got to school he looked in his desk and found my box. I wrote anonymous on it so he wouldn’t know it was from me. Right when he looked at it he threw it away. I’m still crying. I have depression.”
Valentine’s Day is always the worst, but have you ever stayed up all night making something and they threw it away? I’m sure you have because I have. One of the worst pains. I cried for five days, and I could only imagine how long Madi cried. God bless.
On 15 Feb. 2008, we reach a resolution. Madi wrote, “Worst day ever. Riley told me he likes Jessica. I am done with boys. I want to kill all of them."
I actually wrote the last two lines in my diary two days ago. Taylor Swift writes those lines in every single one of her songs and gets millions. It’s a universal truth to be done with all boys, and so is the picture she drew.
This is one of the most beautiful things about the Internet. We are all so capable and willing to post our embarrassing top secret diary entries from when we were kids. We are all able to relate to falling in love with someone who loves someone else. We all desire to tell their top secrets, and we all feel the crushing pain that comes with working hard for someone and it not being good enough.
We all feel all of those things, and maybe that’s why these posts go viral. These posts go viral because there’s some sort of simple whisper amongst the jokes and the funny pictures that we are not alone in this world. We are all weird and quirky and obnoxious, but we are not alone.
