I read the article at longreads— about the Victorian Diaries , Publish at November 17, 2025 by Elena Mary at The Aeon Newsletter. Picked by Cheri Lucas Rowlands
It's quite beguiling how it ends with a question:
" Are we actually improving our lives or just finding new ways to criticise ourselves? "
The title is quite catchy because it makes my brain wonder why and what happened next. In Victorian era, Everyone was in quest to self-mastery and productivity by writing diaries daily to look for gap in the past and current situation of themselves. It's very appealing to know people in victorian era was indulge for self proficiency.
As the Famous Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote;
Not in vain the distance beacons.
Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever
down the ringing grooves of change.
He sure is right, The future we hold is not promising but it is not in vain and we ourselves are improving in ways we don't even notice— so let us explore the future that will light the hope within us.
Why can't we all just be invested to ourselves? like the 19th-century obsession with self-improvement and self-discipline, would be a great investment for ourselves and we'd lessen the problem of our economy eventually. Even the heir to the throne Victoria wrote in her diary; I love to be employed; I hate to be idle. Unfortunately most youth these days are likely to be idle.
I'll skip most of the parts because it is inappropriate to mention.
Victorian's era says a lot about literacy, Which diaries became popular reading and hobby for most people to control time and to differentiate the needs of improvement overall of one selves. Interesting to have everyone obsessed to be a master of their own time.
Writing become my habit since I turned 8, I love writing diaries (bibliography) about the highlights of my days, even if I did nothing I tried to turn things around in a positive way— somehow when pandemic hits I became Idle but not at writing.
" Are we actually improving our lives or just finding new ways to criticise ourselves? "
They say youth is the hope of the nation, but youth also learns from the elders. You do, we learn. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way— growing on a toxic family makes me wanna change who I am, I start to learn how not to blame others for mistakes I made and I turned to God, and I've learned that forgiving Isn't just for the other persons benefit but our hearts too.
Free yourself, Learn to explore. You'll make mistakes along the way but you'll be just fine— correct them, apologize to yourself and forgive yourself but especially to others you have hurt along the way.
Keeping a diary isn't just about self-improvement, but about legacy— you'll forget most of the days you lived but wrote them down, let your children knows the mistakes you've made light them a hope, teach them how you've changed and how to change when a mistake is made, Be the person that people are inspired to be better, not just your kids.
Click the link below to read the article
Victorian Diaries Self
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