Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

www.freedigitalphotos.net I started keeping a diary very young, but became more inspired to tell the story of my life to those lucky people who would discover my work when I was gone after reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Of course, I was not nearly as precocious, nor did I have the devastating story of Ms. Frank. As a kid, the thing that struck me most about Anne Frank's diary was her ability to share her feelings, safely, in a world that was beyond safe. (I didn't realize more of the true relevance of her words until I was older.) While I felt safe as a child, I sure understood feeling insecure, and I thought if I had a place I could write that and leave it all to the page, I would be stronger once I closed it's previously blank pages. That's how strongly I felt about my diary writing back then. Because I had felt something powerful in those pages from history, I felt writing my history would somehow create serious thought when read later. I followed Anne's le...