This guest post is by Maria Walters of Rejournaling Me.
It was August or September, 1999, when I finally realized that then next year was going to be The Year Two Thousand. Being twelve, I loved being involved in anything that I felt like was “making history,” and my anticipation for the New Year rose with the media hype.
At that time I was also avidly collecting novels in the Dear America series, which told the stories of girls growing up at different points in American history. If you couldn’t tell by the name, the novels were in diary form—but they were fiction, a fact that seemed unfortunate in my eyes.
So, on the precipice of what I knew was going to be a new, amazing time in history, I decided that the journal of a real, live, almost-teenage girl would be absolutely fascinating to historians and readers everywhere. And thus, my new year’s resolution was born: to journal every night, to create something that would last for millennia to come.
Yes, a little melodramatic, perhaps, but isn’t that how all dreams seem when you’re twelve? Maybe that’s been a secret of my success: more than eleven years later, I still roll over in bed right before I turn off my light and hand-write a page or two about my day.
Why I journal
Though I started journaling through a naive desire to be famous and make history, I’ve grown to appreciate it much more than that. My journals are my reference books for my life—I can remind myself how much I’ve grown, how far I’ve come, or just how my handwriting has changed by simply flipping through the pages.
My journal is somewhere where I can think out loud and say things without worrying who is reading or how ridiculous my dreams are. I can rant, be frustrated, and think through issues without picking a fight with anyone. And, most of all, I can review my day, even in its dullness, and reflect on what has been good or bad.
Looking back, my journal won’t be the most interesting read for most people—I include plenty of monotonous details about the schedule of my day without being able to encapsulate the funny moments, the tears shed, or the characters of people around me who make life worth living. But I treasure the ability to look back on “normal” days in my life that are completely different than today’s “normal” day.
Start your own journal
The combination of foreignness and familiarity is probably the reason people are often fascinated by the fact that I journal. Often, they mention wishing they had the same habit, or asking how I’ve kept going. Well, there are certainly things (like my spelling!) that I could have improved back in 1999, but here are a couple of things I think helped me keep writing.
Take a head start
I actually started journaling on December 21, 1999, ten days before Y2K. I could be a pretty cautious girl who didn’t like failure, so I decided to test out my new year’s resolution before deciding to make it. That way, if I decided it wasn’t working or wasn’t worth it, I could just not make the resolution, instead of failing right out of the gate. Playing with logic in that way still works for me—I will often start a practice before deciding to commit to it long-term.
Use something beautiful
I remember the process of elimination at the bookstore when I was looking for my new journal—weighing one book in my hand, then another, scrutinizing each carefully. And then I felt it—a slim book, with a satiny smooth, lightly padded cover, covered with an image of a Monet or other impressionistic painting. Since then, I’ve picked out at least three or four journals each year—and I still look for one that looks beautiful and feels right.
Do it every day
I took my journal on two or three sleepovers within the first month of starting it. I’ve written in the light of a flashlight, a closet, in the hallway or bathroom, surrounded by people or alone. I even remember staying up later than I was supposed to, lying on my bedroom floor and writing by the hall light coming in under the door. It was only five or ten minutes, but I found a time for it, every day.
And, yes, I have missed a day or two at a time, but I don’t think about my habit as being “writing almost every day,” because suddenly every day becomes the “almost” part instead of the “every day” part. Writing every day makes me look for ways past the excuses instead of looking for the excuses not to write.
Expect to be boring
As I mentioned before, the way I journal helps me to think back through the day, writing down what I did, who I was with, and sometimes it reads more like a calendar than a novel. Some days I have plenty of emotions to spill or thoughts to think, and I can go on for pages. But when I write, I don’t worry about what I’m going to say, having the perfect phrasing, or any other performance anxiety—I just write something down and know that whether it’s fascinating or boring, I’ll write again tomorrow.
I may not be as famous as 12-year-old me might have hoped, but I have lived through a new, amazing time in history. Now I have a chance to look back and acknowledge it, and I have plenty more new, amazing times to look forward to documenting—which is my hope for you, too, that you have a chance to reflect on what was good and hard, and look forward to it.
What about you? Do you keep a journal? Or do you have some other way to process what happens each day?
Maria shares her old journal entries, 11 years later, at her blog, Rejournaling Me.
About Guest Contributor
I’ve been journaling for 16 years and can’t imagine my life without it. It started, for me, as a gratitude journal. Finding at least 5 things every day to be grateful for completely changed my life. I highly recommend it.
Now I incorporate the gratitude into a more inclusive post in my journal (almost) every night before I go to sleep. You’re right about how boring the day to day can be, but when it isn’t you’re grateful for the boring/ normal to return.
Thanks for the post.
Barbara, I’ve heard people recommend gratitude journals before. My journaling didn’t start out that way, but I am struck by how often I start an entry “Today was a great day.” It’s a good way to train myself to think about every day like that!
I have loved journaling off and on throughout the years as a way to work thru the issues going thru my head at the time. They were a type of therapy as well as a type of prayer journal to God. I wish that I had been organized and consistant as I have a stack of composition notebooks with not much rhyme or reason to the order!
Now my blogging has become somewhat of a journal, although I don’t share all my deepest darkest secrets there!
Bernice
Are you too busy to be yourself?
I’ve definitely found blogging to be a good way to journal and stay in touch with people at the same time, especially when I’m traveling or away from family or friends. I love the feeling of writing with pen and paper, but how permanent digital journaling is, so now I’m compromising and digitizing my old paper journals! My blog is a fun way for friends to see what I wrote years ago.
Good job with your piece, Maria.
Most of what I’ve learned to this point in my life I’ve chronicled in my personal journal, which up until the launch of my own blog had remained under lock and key, something like a intimate diary or private manuscript.
I refer to it often, and it has provided me with a basic framework for living, loving, learning and working successfully. It has been and continues to be, a remarkable platform for leveraging the power of independent thought.
My journal has become a priceless cache of wisdom containing timeless truths that has proved to be an invaluable guide and indispensable resource to me. I consider it to be my most cherished material treasure.
– Contrarian
Thanks for the compliment, Contrarian! It looks like you really have learned a lot. Your travels have taken you a lot of places, and it sounds like you’ve gone full circle, at least in some things. I’m glad you have the chance to share your musings with the world!
Maria, this is a great post!
I enjoyed listening to your experiences in the context of summarizing what you have learned for others to relate to or maybe even apply for themselves.
It is not only interesting as part of your story to imagine, but also helpful because we as readers have a way to connect and participate in those past experiences by applying them to the present. And that makes it all the more engaging to read!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips for us and encouraging us to have a way to process what we experience rather than just passively letting days “happening to us”.
🙂 K
Thanks, Karen! I love the dual purpose of journaling: being able to process through my day in the present, and look back on all the little ins and outs of life once they’re past. My mom saves old calendars for the same reason – looking back at the pattern of life as field trips and soccer practice morph into band practice and college application essays.
Maria, your post really made me smile and remember fond memories of when I was only a little girl experimenting with a diary. I’d write about everything and anything that cropped up into my mind and did it in funny ways like writing in all-caps, doodling beside the journal entry, and adding smilies.
I then grew up, entered college, and forgot about how wonderful writing in your own journal really felt like. I then stumbled upon all of my old journals and diaries after coming home for the term break and was amazed at how funny my handwriting was, how simple-minded I was, and how much I’ve changed.
I think I’ll start journaling again, and this time sticking to it. 🙂
I’ve journaled on and off since I was little. More off than on.
I just started reading the ones I wrote when I was 13-17. It makes me feel really bad for my parents.
I also wish I had better handwriting, because it’s quite hard to decipher.
To remain focused for such a long time is really difficult. You determination is inspiring.
I asked myself :- “Can you do it?” From within I answered to self :- “No…”
Andy, you definitely can. There are plenty of things that we all do daily that we don’t think of as being extraordinary – even brushing our teeth or getting dressed in the morning! The only difference with this is that it leaves a trace. Find some time every day – I’ve even heard of people who journal while waiting for their Starbucks in the morning! Or try a one-sentence journal – even that adds up to tell a story of who you are.
I love the idea of getting something beautiful to journal in. I’m going to take that idea to heart when I look for a journal for my upcoming trip around the US.
I love that you mention “expect to be boring.” Sometimes our daily lives are really just boring, but the overall experiences we have are what make life interesting. Sometimes it’s our midnight McDonalds runs or other boring daily life stuff that really show our personalities in our journals, and how our life perspectives change over time.
It’s cool that you’ve journaled for so long.
Great items from you, man. I have consider your
stuff prior to and you are just too fantastic. I
really like what you have received here, certainly
like what you’re saying and the way in which during which you assert it.
You are making it enjoyable and you still care for to stay it smart.
I can not wait to read much more from you. This is actually a wonderful website.
This type of toys are inherently toys, yet at the very same time they seem to have something mysterious, when permit
yoou masking things go on the ground or fly airborne by pushing thhe
magic push-button control switch.
Health aand wellness annd wellness articles released by Dr.
Eric Wechselberger, Seattle Chiropractic specialist.
Once wwe know when thee printed packaging is going
to be ssupplied to the factory a CD press can be aloted ffor thee
disc replication, thi way we can time the work ahead off press and also
go to the CD printing line.
This article provides clear idea for the new viewers of blogging, that truly how to do blogging.
fotballdrakter barn
Concepcio Kroatien EdwinaYna
VenusGord Schalke 04 HoseaFran
JacklynVr Roma MaryBoake
VenusGord Schalke 04 HoseaFran
ZitaZfny Paris Saint Germain TitusLogu
GracieSch England MilanCarl
BryceStop Bayern Munchen CurtBorow
LynetteHa AC Milan DougByrne
RamiroShe Turkiet AYKBrandy
DustinOxn Chelsea NiamhbnTa
ABCPzx ABCDCQBk ABCDWJXSp billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABesC ABCsLt ABCsYLr ABCDSBly
ABCOsT ABCDlFhr ABCDWnCwT fodboldtrøjer ABmhi ABCsfi ABCOyGb ABCDYkBU
ABCqLk ABCDywLi ABCDxdfVl billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABkGF ABCBVH ABCjscv ABCDJMne
ABCxEU ABCDqOKA ABCDfWRPC billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABFfE ABCwzy ABCEuYR
ABCDpuVz
ABCNak ABCDaPdV ABCDiEgSf fodboldtrøjer børn ABHyC ABCoay ABCtlMc ABCDgeFj
ABCAhR ABCDsRES ABCDqQtNm fodboldtrøjer ABMGF ABCFLk ABChZQk ABCDmEIP
ABCMkB ABCDPWbn ABCDmkcFD fodboldtrøjer børn ABGhv ABCsaK ABCcynD ABCDlghY
ABCfYh ABCDoKnW ABCDCoyvV billige fodboldtrøjer ABqli ABCLWy ABCCvsa ABCDHsRS
ABCiWm ABCDJKDB ABCDWfijs billige fodboldtrøjer ABUDO
ABCdJb ABCXRpH ABCDLpNY
ABCION ABCDaLhb ABCDhXfSr billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABwjK ABCNmE ABCcTON ABCDbEHg
ABCryd ABCDqQxE ABCDKZPus fodboldtrøjer børn ABuco ABCkgB
ABClCaA ABCDEThS
ABCveY ABCDBpNv ABCDmVECs billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABABS ABCtdZ ABCnYZr
ABCDnUsG
ABCSYB ABCDcwDL ABCDZDeNm billige fodboldtrøjer børn ABoNI ABCnXS ABCxSGj ABCDmMUj
ABCCZr ABCDpwKm ABCDjyfsB billige fodboldtrøjer ABgwE ABCATY ABCeysj ABCDLruI
ABCKgs ABCDrVSJ ABCDcATFJ billige fodboldtrøjer ABZad ABCcKY ABCcILG ABCDJGgv
ABCLPo ABCDZKev ABCDqosyO billige fotballdrakter ABqKE ABCArg ABCqWzB ABCDZtBb
ABCcjI ABCDXqsv ABCDzVySU fotballdrakter ABiQX ABCSgw
ABCoLvH ABCDqktH
ABCMxW ABCDkohe ABCDcguIG fotballdrakter ABTEV ABCnxw ABCaFGV
ABCDEXjh
ABCbkJ ABCDdmug ABCDaXACq fotballdrakter barn ABIKV ABCRfu
ABCCYuV ABCDpDgu
ABCWNk ABCDvMwU ABCDfmhSP billige fotballdrakter ABybh ABCykZ ABCqBfc ABCDlEKh
ABCuVH ABCDSrGl ABCDVogCt fotballdrakter ABfwb ABCRZV ABCzoaK ABCDZPeb
ABCWez ABCDbwoj ABCDtZSUV fotballdrakter barn ABGMX ABCSfz ABCzUGu ABCDTIZQ
ABCPAc ABCDRPuY ABCDMDdzr billige fotballdrakter ABOlX ABCLGF ABCvMgN ABCDdYvc
ABCXpJ ABCDfSlb ABCDSkCyb fotballdrakter barn ABqjY ABCahb ABCnQyJ ABCDJLUw
ABCvtJ ABCDufWe ABCDPEKeD fotballdrakter ABkmx ABCwvE ABCrckC ABCDiJDI
ABCRLV ABCDuwgv ABCDpstOd fotballdrakter ABalh ABCLNg ABCzXhO ABCDGdQK
ABCBAw ABCDgIbk ABCDrZHkN billige fotballdrakter ABGxZ ABCgEz ABCvDmx ABCDGJei
ABCkgY ABCDVXqt ABCDtBkNh fotballdrakter barn ABtgx ABCrUB ABCpsKQ ABCDyvhf
ABCcZa ABCDdrcu ABCDiaTmn billige fotballdrakter AByat ABCazw ABCNBTt ABCDWUpo
ABCTNK ABCDQqEj ABCDMelkG billige fotballdrakter ABEqs ABCimg ABCVQhI ABCDxDwC
Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely fantastic. I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it sensible. I can not wait to read far more from you. This is really a tremendous site.
Hey very nice website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds alsoI am happy to find numerous useful information here in the post, we need work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .