I've been journaling ever since I was a kid. We're not talking one or two notebooks filled, I'm talking about nine or ten full books of my notes and thoughts ever since the fifth grade. I started to journal just because I liked to write and it was a place to get all of my thoughts on paper. To this day, I leave a notebook and pen beside my bed just in case I wake up in the middle of the night and need to write down any ideas that came from my dreams.

Journaling has ultimately been my number one creative outlet that is continually inspiring me on a daily basis. As a writer knows, all it takes is one sentence that leads to another and you're off to the races with another journal entry. Journaling makes me push myself to come up with original pieces that I can be really proud of. I found that the more I wrote, the better I was expressing myself with all of these emotions coming out.

As I've gotten older, the main reason I write down my thoughts so often is so I can remember every detail about my life, the good and the bad. I can go back to the first time I had a crush on someone, to my first heartbreak. The very first time I fell in love with a horse, and the times that I had a terrible week on said horse. The very first panic attack I ever had. It's hard for me to go through certain times because you just want to go back and tell yourself it'll be okay and everything will eventually work out. And even now I have to tell myself that. You think everything is awful and the world is falling around you, but look how far you've made it already. Never in a million years did I think that I would ever be at the place I'm at today. But I am. And I have so many journal entries to show my journey and the work it takes to get there.

Life is hard, there's no doubting that. But being able to document the journey to go back to it when you're feeling a little down makes it so worth it. I have no plans to stop journaling in my life, the goal is actually to fill a bookshelf with journals of my life. I do this so when I'm old and can't remember a ton, I can go back and relive the best moments of my life. Even better, share them with my family so they can see the things that I've gone through and accomplished.