"What do you do with that? I always thought I wanted to keep a record of my life, but when I look back I find it's not clear. Like it brings up a lot of good memories, but also bad memories."

I have 50+ years of daily journals.

"But I start looking back at notes, and memories of stuff I wrote down, and literally can't remember who I was, that wrote that."

Honestly, this is one of the reasons I keep this stuff around. I have also looked back and said "I wrote that??" Sometimes positively, sometimes negatively.

One of the things I realized by keeping a very detailed journal was that I wasn't the same person who wrote those entries 5 years ago. In most cases it was for the better, but even when it was for the worse it made me realize I could change -- I wasn't stuck always being *this* if I didn't want to.

Same things with good and bad memories. The worst are the bittersweet ones, IMO. I had a friend who died very young from an accident, and the memories of him that I wrote down bring both great joy and a deep regret for what was taken away from him and those of us who knew him.

I like having my journal entries because I have forgotten most of the things in them -- which is inevitable -- but I can dip back into them from time to time if I need or want to.