Along with the home baking phenomenon I’ve noticed during the pandemic, I’ve observed another trend among those of us privileged to be staying home. There’s been an explosion of nostalgia, whether it’s digging up and scanning old photos, or reconnecting with older memories in other ways.
Thinking about this gave me the idea to share a memory of my own.
In 2019, I took a big break from public speaking at conferences. I’d decided that outside of my job itself, the entire year of my sabbatical would focus on taking care of personal things. While a lot of what needed to be done wasn’t fun at all, I was determined to get on stage at least once for something that was unequivocally fun. And I did.
In October I was thrilled to nab a spot in the Montreal edition of a show called Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids. It’s a super entertaining event and podcast, in which people read stuff they wrote as young people, whether a journal, a song, a poem, or in my case, a teenage diary. Here’s the podcast version of the show, in which I recount my high school grad-night antics. In case you want to skip ahead, I’m on at 24:00.
Kathryn Presner 
4 replies on “Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids”
I love your diary entry! It shows your sparkling personality and wit. So cute – and nostalgic!
Thanks! I think you might be a little biased. đ
This was fantastic Kathryn!
My name is Raven Taylor, I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, I’ve stumbled across this while searching for other people brave enought to share their teenage diaries. Myself and my best friend grew up writing diaries together since we were kids and we now have a podcast called ‘deary me diary’ where we’ve been reading through said diaries together. We were hoping to branch out and start getting some extracts from other peoples diaries to share. We were looking for either a guest to join us via skype to read through a fifteen minute extract of their own diary or to send in an extract that we can read out.Â
Anyway, if this is something you might be interested in let me know. And thank you for sharing this as this looks like a podcast I would enjoy!
Hi Raven, thanks for reaching out. I’d be delighted to be on your podcast, it sounds fun! I’ll send you an email. đ