Forgotten

September Writing Challenge:

Forgotten

I started blogging in 2005! Isn’t that crazy? Twenty-one years! 

I’ve always been a “documenter.” Growing up, I wrote in a journal regularly. I still have a personal journal (digital now), but due to blogging and social media, I don’t write in it often. I’ve changed my methods, but I still document my life. 

Sometimes I feel silly for having a blog, but then I go back and read old posts, and I am so grateful I’ve written things down. It didn’t have to be a blog - there are so many great ways to keep records - but for me, it has been a blog. 

Another way I “document” is through photo books. Every year for Christmas I give each of my kids a photo book of their year (it goes from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving due to Black Friday deals on photo books). Last year for Christmas I sent Nicky’s to Puerto Rico. It was the fattest one I’d ever made, and it only covered the first half of the year. I only did up to him leaving on his mission (June 2025), and I plan to do a photo book of his mission after he comes home, but the book was still huge because he lived it up his senior year! He loves it so much and calls it his “trunky book.” One of his mission companions took it away from him once. 

(“Trunky” is basically homesick). 

The point I’m getting to is that I’m really grateful for all the “documentation” I have of life’s events because I’ve forgotten so much! Zoe was looking at one of her photo books once, and she asked, “Mom, did I used to be deaf?” I didn’t know where she came up with that idea, and then she showed me her photo book where I had written about how she didn’t pass her hearing test at the audiologist after she got her tubes. I have no memory of that! (And because I didn’t “document” anything afterward, I don’t know what happened with her hearing! But I know she’s not deaf, so I guess everything turned out fine).*

I always look back at blog posts, photos, and social media posts and love the memories. So as silly as I feel to write on a blog or share something on Instagram, I’m

grateful a source of memory keeping! 

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With that, another September has come and gone! I’m sad I missed some prompts, but it’s been fun anyway. 

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* I’m now questioning whether I need to have Zoe’s hearing checked. Did I forget that she had hearing problems? Was I supposed to follow up on this?

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