When I was 10, my grandma randomly gifted me a mini, spiral-bound notebook with Hershey's Kisses on the cover. I remember that I immediately decided to write in it as often as possible, which ended up being just about every day. The small pages were filled with my fifth-grade, sloppy handwriting, of everything that I did that day. The topics ranged from who came over to what I had for dinner, and the more mundane the event described, the more entertaining it is to reread. This diary serves as the first written memories I have that were recorded on my own accord. I'd kept school assignments and papers I'd written before, and I'm fortunate to have a lot of photos of me as a child, but this is the first document that I recorded facts about myself on my own free will. Hearing my own thoughts as a literal child from almost nine years ago is an experience so surreal (and let's face it, cringeworthy) that for over a year now, I have been keeping more journals to hopefully reread several decades in the future and find enjoyment out of later.
Therefore, here is why I highly encourage that you try to keep a journal as well!
1. A journal is a time capsule for the ordinary things that occur throughout your day.
Many of us are at school a lot of the day, and it may seem pointless to keep up a journal of what you do every day, simply because the whole school thing is repetitive and it may not be a part of your life you want to remember, anyway. But when I sit in class, I look at my desk and speculate if whether I'll remember where I sat in this class fifty years in the future. If by the time I'm 70, I'll know what color the carpet was in my dorm room, or what my favorite shirt is at that time of my life. I note my favorites that arise throughout the seasons, certain songs that make me feel good, people I'm talking to, what I bought that day. There are so many small details that you take for granted every day, but no matter how commonplace they may seem, jotting them down is a great way to ensure that as time progresses, you'll never forget those tiny moments that helped build you as a person. You never know what you'll look back on in the future that will make you sigh with nostalgia.
2. A journal is where you can express your creativity, even if you think you don't have any.
If you decide to scroll through the #moleskin tag on any social media, you'll see a lot of genuinely talented artists who fill up an entire journal every month, collaging every page to the edges with effortless-looking sketches. For a long time, I was intimidated that journaling meant I would need to be an artist. I would have to put creativity into what I write, or else it would all be just bland text. If I want to buy an expensive journal, I would need to be an artist.
But journaling is highly personal and completely depends on one's own preferences, so don't let the pictures of other people's journals trick you into thinking that yours must be just as grand and beautiful in order to amount to anything. A "plain" journal is just as valuable and requires just as much hard work as a journal filled to the brim with glued-in pages and drawings, and neither is more creative than the other. However, I find that the more often I journal, the more I feel inspired to start becoming artsier with what I put inside these notebooks; therefore, I've created a separate art journal for projects that don't have any writing in them, and I find that it's a lot of fun to keep up with, and there's not as much pressure to make an entry in it every single day.
3. A journal is a safe place where you can record your rants and opinions.
I know I tend to lean toward social media when my nerves or anger get in a tizzy, but I find that journaling about my frustrations tends to leave me calmer than complaining to someone else. Writing down the things I'm mad about often helps me release some steam, and I know that it's in a place where if I later regret the things I write, they wouldn't be trapped on the Internet forever. Whether you write 10 pages about something you're infuriated about or do a quick sketch depicting that rage, picking up a pen instead of your phone is a much safer and much more guaranteed way to help alleviate hard feelings about mostly anything.
4. A journal can serve as a sort of scrapbook, even if you're 50 years younger than the age of the typical scrapbooker (or you might not be).
What I and a lot of other journalers enjoy doing is collecting small bits of paper that we collect throughout the average day and putting them in our journals. It could be anything like a flyer you were randomly handed at the mall, a ticket stub to a movie (I know at least one of you readers have a safe spot for some movie stubs), an abandoned sticky note you found stuck to a door, a candy wrapper, etc. Gluing these items in your journal may seem silly, but it's a great way to document tangible things that you encountered throughout your day, and the story of how it came into your hands may be an interesting one. Give it some time, and those artifacts from your younger days might seem more priceless than they do now.
5. A journal never requires regular entries.
With all of these previous tips aside, journaling is completely up to the writer. One of the most common misconceptions I hear from people wanting to start a journal is that they don't think they would be able to do it regularly. And here's the simplest solution: don't put a time frame on how often you need to report back. As soon as you put a deadline on writing, it becomes a task that can cause unnecessary stress. My biggest advice is to just leave the journal on your nightstand or somewhere within reach of a place that you would typically hang around in your down time. Even if it takes months, eventually you will notice it and get the drive to write. And never feel like you need to take up the time to discuss what's gone on in your life since you last entered- simply pick up your writing utensil and go.
If you're interested in hearing more about my journaling process or what I recommend while getting started, I have a journaling series on my YouTube channel where I talk more in depth about my advice. Click here to check it out!
