Be honest. How often do you lay in bed at night staring at the screen of your phone, trying to squeeze just one more bit of enjoyment out of your day? Now, how many of those nights are actually all that life changing? If you're like me, very few. Do you know what will change your life? Keeping a regular journal.
Now, when I talk about writing in a journal, most of you probably immediately think of a teenager scribbling lovesick sagas about her crush du jour. That is not what I mean (unless that's your thing, in which case, you do you). When I speak of journal writing, I simply mean writing down the words, phrases, or expressions that reflect the reality of your moment. At various stages of my own life, my journals have looked drastically different from what they do now, and I'm sure they will change again at some point in the future. Journals are living documents, and they reflect a living, ever-changing person.
In college, I wrote journals that included: date, weight, and mood. Example:
Saturday, December 19th, 2015
162 lbs. Bored.
Later, in graduate school, I promised myself that I would write everyday, but I only needed to include date and weather if I didn't feel like writing. For no reason I could ever figure out, I also never used first-person subjects in my writing at that time. Example:
Saturday, December 19th, 2015
Clear. Cold. Went to the store today.
As an adjunct professor, I had a mild literary streak where I convinced myself that I should write a haiku every day to reflect the events of the day. Example:
Saturday, December 19th, 2015
Rush to the next class
Wind blows my heavy skirt
One posh professor.
These days, I've stopped playing mind games with myself, so I'm not so strict about what I write. A typical journal entry no longer exists. If I want to write a poem, I write a poem. If I want to note my weight, I do. If I want to talk about the weather, great.
*Disclosure: Purchases made through links on this review may result in compensation for The Modern Minerva. All opinions expressed here are based on my personal experience. The Modern Minerva is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
The point of a journal is to give your mind a way to relax at the end of the day, to reflect on your experiences, and to put those reflections into words. This is writing without grades or assessment, without pressure, and in many ways, without audience.
The only person who will likely look back at this journal is you -- future you, who may want to know what a day felt like in the moment rather than through the haze of age. And who knows? Maybe you'll be the kind of person who destroys your journals as part of a regular cleansing ritual (I like to compost journal entries about my fears, but that's just me).
However you decide to write your journals is fine; the point is to get used to playing with language and exploring the various ways that you can use language to convey meaning. This is something you should be doing whether you are just starting to learn a language or you're an expert teacher of that language. Play with new words, try out new sentence structures and grammars, and soak in the power (and the limitations) of English.
So, have I convinced you to start keeping a journal? Post to the comments with your own journaling advice!