My paper journal, you mean? From the beginning, my only audience has been, for the most part, me. As far as I know, I've always lived with people who respected the privacy of my journal and did not read them. I always wrote thinking only that I would be the only person to read them.
It wasn't until an adult and had been writing in them for years that I really considered that other people could read them, and might, some day. I had wondered whether they might be bequeathed to a historical museum or something, either as a bit of personal history for a typical midwesterner, if anyone would be interested, or if (as I sometimes hoped in my most private musings, although the hope has certainly faded quite a bit) I became a well-known enough writer that someone might be interested in my personal papers, as part of a literary estate (graduate students, others of that ilk, etc.).
The understanding I have come to in the end is that the journals are mine, and mine alone, as long as I am alive. After I die, Rob can read them, and the girls can read them after the age of 21, with the caveat that they understand that the journals were always meant, during my lifetime, for my eyes alone, and so the thoughts within are extremely candid and blunt.
After that, I suppose it would depend on whether any institution might have any interest in them, but it would be the decision for Rob and/or the girls (unless I find some institution to which I'd bequeath them upon my death. Haven't found one yet.
Re: Journal
It wasn't until an adult and had been writing in them for years that I really considered that other people could read them, and might, some day. I had wondered whether they might be bequeathed to a historical museum or something, either as a bit of personal history for a typical midwesterner, if anyone would be interested, or if (as I sometimes hoped in my most private musings, although the hope has certainly faded quite a bit) I became a well-known enough writer that someone might be interested in my personal papers, as part of a literary estate (graduate students, others of that ilk, etc.).
The understanding I have come to in the end is that the journals are mine, and mine alone, as long as I am alive. After I die, Rob can read them, and the girls can read them after the age of 21, with the caveat that they understand that the journals were always meant, during my lifetime, for my eyes alone, and so the thoughts within are extremely candid and blunt.
After that, I suppose it would depend on whether any institution might have any interest in them, but it would be the decision for Rob and/or the girls (unless I find some institution to which I'd bequeath them upon my death. Haven't found one yet.