ANNA‘S DIARY

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1942

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I‘ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the thoughts of a thirteenyearold schoolgirl. Oh well, it doesn‘t matter. I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things off my chest1 .

―Paper has more patience than people.‖ I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands. I was bored and wondering whether to stay in or go out. I finally stayed where I was and decided to start a diary. Yes, paper does have 8 more patience, and since I‘m not planning to let anyone else read this notebook, unless I should ever find a real friend, it probably won‘t make a bit of difference.

Now I‘m back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary in the first place: I don‘t have a friend. Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a thirteenyearold girl is completely alone in the world. And I‘m not. I have loving parents and a sixteenyearold sister, and there are about thirty people I can call friends. I have a bunch of admirers who can‘t keep their adoring eyes off me and who constantly try to catch a glimpse2 of me in the classroom. I have a family, loving aunts and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything, except my one true friend.

All I think about when I‘m with friends is having a good time. I can‘t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don‘t seem to be able to get closer, and that‘s a problem. Maybe it‘s my fault that we don‘t trust each other. In any case, that‘s just how things are. That‘s why I started the diary.

To enhance 3 the image of this longawaited friend in my imagination, I don‘t want to write only about facts, but I want the diary to be my friend, and I am going to call this friend Kitty.

1 to get off one‘s chest [tʃest] чистосердечно признаться в чем-либо, облегчить душу / шчыра прызнацца ў нечым, аблегчыць душу

2 to catch a glimpse [ɡlɪmps] увидеть (на мгновение) / убачыць (на імгненне) 3 to enhance [ɪnˈhɑːns] усилить / узмацніць