influential-magazine.com
I always liked the idea of keeping a diary or a journal. I think most people do and like many, I have tried several times throughout junior high and high school to keep one. Those usually lasted a week… maybe two. A senior blog lasted a couple months... But like the other ones, I eventually stopped. So, what made this time different? To put it simply, I realized life was too precious to not record the small moments. Journaling may seem boring, or purposeless at first, but there are many benefits that come along with this daily form of writing.
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Secondly, if you skip a day, go back and write it. There have been many instances where I’m a week behind. I don’t start writing about the present day, until I’ve pulled out my phone calendar and written something for each day that I’ve missed. Those days often have a lot of “We’ll I’m late again…but I think I did this today...” or “I can’t quite remember what I did today…” The point is you go back and write it. It keeps you accountable for each of your days. But what if you keep putting it off? What if you never write the present because you haven’t written the past? Do you just stop journaling? No. This has happened twice to me, usually over Christmas break. I come home and didn’t write anything for a month….and so there’s no way I’m going back and filling in each day, day by day. I don’t want to just skip it, so instead I write categories. Family, friends, waterskiing, lake trips, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, etc. I write the category above and then fill in everything I can remember. Once I’ve done that, I can confidently restart journaling the present day. Going back and filling in the missed days, keeps your commitment to the journal and to your past, present, and future self. Third, be honest with your journal. The point of your journal is to record
moments from your life, to reflect, to be yourself. You can only grow when you are honest. Sure, you may look back at it later and call yourself an idiot (I have), but hopefully you’re smarter now than you were at the time you wrote that page. If you start small, go back and write skipped days, and stay honest with your journal, you’ll find keeping one is a rewarding experience. I currently have over three years of my life in a collection of seven journals. I’ve almost stopped a couple of times but in the end, I knew I needed to keep writing. It would be a disservice to my future self to stop. Sure, my life may not be as exciting or dramatic as others. But it’s my life, and it’s precious, filled with good, funny, bad, and sad moments, and there’s not a day gone by I’m not thankful I’ve kept a daily journal. You too, have a story. And it’s worth recording. Even moments you think no one else cares about are important because it’s your life, it’s your small moments. So, start a journal, start small, reflect on your small moments, record your life, fill in skipped days, and I promise you, it will be a story your future self will look forward to rereading repeatedly.l
MARCH / APRIL 2019 TEEN
FLUENTIAL 327