In 1934, Marion Milner, writing under the pseudonym Joanna Field, published "A Life of One's Own," reflecting on her seven-year undertaking of keeping a diary aimed at answering the question, what makes me happy? The diary itself is not the text of the work. Rather, "A Life of One's Own" forms a research text that anticipates contemporary autobiographical narrative inquiry. Recognizing narrative inquiry's grounding in John Dewey's 1930s theories of experience, this paper explores the ways in which, first, experience is explicitly valued in the text and, second, the ways in which the text provides evidence that diary or notebook keeping can serve as an important process in autobiographical narrative inquiry. The author concludes the paper by offering reflections on some possible uses of notebook keeping for both narrative inquirers and educators.