For my entire life, I’ve wanted to be the kind of girl who keeps a diary. I remember being six and pulling out an unused Winnie-the-Pooh journal writing, “Dear diary, mom is making me see Spiderman 2! I hate Spiderman!” and then never writing in it ever again. This process repeated over and over again throughout middle and high school, with my longest effort lasting just under a week my sophomore year.
This past May, I decided to take another stab at it, and this time, it somehow stuck. I think what made me keep writing was the realization that it doesn’t have to be perfect. I had always tried to create the perfect journal, with perfectly formed entries. Once I let go of that pressure and just let myself create, it became more fun than an obligation. Every night before I go to sleep (or the next day, if I’m too tired) I write about my day, how I’m feeling, interesting things I learned in class, pretty much anything on my mind. Sometimes, I doodle, collage, make playlists, or express myself creatively in whatever way I can.
Today, for example, I found myself in my school’s botanical garden and glued in different flowers and other plants. I’ve never really been the kind of person who lets everyone know how I feel. I tend to bottle things up and when I do tell people things, they’re usually not the things that are most important to me. Writing in a journal has not only provided me an outlet to say how I feel but has actually helped me learn to express myself to my friends. Since I started the journal, I have been able to open up to my friends and family, and am much more comfortable with my emotions. Even though I still wouldn’t consider myself an “open book,” journaling has helped me open up instead of ignoring my feelings and letting them rise up later.
Journaling has also significantly decreased my stress levels and has made me happier by giving me a creative outlet to do what I enjoy. Even when I’m stressed about a paper or a friend situation, writing eases my mind. Whenever I write down everything I did today and funny things my friends did, I feel so grateful for the life I have. Going to bed with this mentality, which usually carries over to the morning, has made me a happier person overall. Even when I have a bad day, writing about it instead of stewing on it for days allows me to get over it and start again the next day.
My journals are some of my most prized possessions. I love flipping through them and being transported back to how I was feeling on a certain day and remembering what I did and who I was with. They are summaries of my life, both important days and the most mundane, and it is so crazy to even look back at a few months ago and see how different my life was.
So now, back to the title of this article. This is about you, after all, and not just my experience with journaling. Starting a journal seems like a daunting task, but if you don't come in with any expectations, it becomes pretty easy. Just find an unused journal in your house, or buy a cheap one from Target, like I did. Start writing a few sentences every few days, then every day, then longer entries every day, until it becomes a habit. Glue in mementos from your day, like movie ticket stubs and flower petals. In 50 years or even five, it will be so meaningful to have a memory of how you felt in this moment.
