A note on the use of NAMES in this text

The problem with using people’s real names is that it can get confusing, you can get them mixed up, and they are hard to remember, because in the real world sometimes two people close to each other have the same name—especially in the case of first names—but sometimes the same first and last name as well. Like, for instance, my closest (male) friend, in Iowa City, at the time of the beginning of this story, has the same first and last name as a current co-worker, who is the person I currently see more than anyone else. Am I supposed to change one, or both, of those names to make it easier to read? Am a supposed to change names like: Mark, Bill, John, Susan, Linda, and Cathy to names like Scooter, Biff, and Wanda so that they are easier to remember? I guess if this was fiction, I would definitely do that. But this is a journal, a diary, and if they pay me enough, a memoir—so the names, sorry!—have to stay the same. The names have NOT been changed, no one is innocent or protected, but I’m not including last names, so the reader will just have to fill those in. While it might make it a bit harder to read, it’ll make it a lot easier to type.