I have loved Sylvia Plath since I read "Mad Girl's Love Song" for AP English. Since, The Bell Jar has become one of my favorite novels. So, I finally took the plunge and decided to commit to reading her journals. I came away from the journals with a few thoughts:
1. Sylvia Plath and I are kindred spirits -- or at least she has a way about writing about the emotional human experience (love, heartbreak, loneliness, career pressures, education, etc.) that resonates with me deeply.
2. Plath adored Ted Hughes more than I could have ever imagined, and I felt like I was infringing on her personal space by reading her descriptions of him ("Living with him is like being told a perpetual story; his mind is the biggest, most imaginative, I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever.") Very heartbreaking, considering the role Hughes played in her unhappiness at the end of her life, but goes to show how swiftly love can be f'd up.
3. Plath struggled with her self-worth and the quality of her writing, which stuns me considering she is one of my favorite poets. Even the greats suffer from imposter syndrome.
4. Many reduce Plath down to her suicide and the way her life ended. When I mentioned reading this to some friends, the resounding response was "How depressing!". In many ways, these journal entries reveal many other sides of Plath -- joys and triumphs that otherwise would be forgotten.

In sum, learned a lot about my favorite poet, confirmed I will never write journal entries this eloquently ever in my lifetime, and I will one day reread this!
Favorite passages:
"'I love the people,' I said. 'I have room in me for love, and for ever so many little lives.'"
"Why can't I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which fits best and is most becoming?"
"I have, continually, the sense that this time is invaluable, & the opposite sense that I am paralyzed to use it: or will use it wastefully & blindly."