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Friday, May 17, 2019

Anisha Nagaraj, thoughts on journaling & writing

I've never liked writing in school because I'm not interested in, for example, character development in A Separate Peace, and I just don't want to reread and revise something over and over, trying to adhere to grammar and formal writing. However, I like writing in my own journal. Anyone can do it. When I write for fun, I can write about whatever I want; mostly it's about some recent events and my thoughts, and I can vent my feelings. I write about almost everything, and I do it for two reasons. The first reason is to vent my frustrations and organize my thoughts. Many times when I write, it's because I'm super stressed or angry. Getting all of it down on paper clears my head and helps me focus on whatever it is I'm stressed about and getting it done (because usually the stress in an assignment from school). The second reason is to look back on the memories. I've been writing in journals since maybe fourth or fifth grade, probably even before that. I have countless random half-used journals lying around the house from when I was younger. Now I can look back at my exact thoughts and emotions on say, a specific day in fifth grade. It's a great feeling, flipping through an old journal, remembering times and people you had forgotten, reminiscing about the good old days when you didn't have to think about your future, cringing at your younger self, and reviving good memories. And seeing how much you have grown as a person is amazing. Writing about something embarrassing now will give you something to laugh at years from now. Writing something when you're happy and carefree now will give you good memories and nostalgia years from now. It's true that most of us don't have time to write everyday, including me, so I mostly time my journal entries around when something eventful happens. For example, some of my journal entries focus on things like my birthday, finals/midterms, meeting my friends, the beginning of the school year, etc. These are things I want to remember years later, both good and bad. You don't need to fill up your journal with day-to-day, routine things, and you yourself won't feel like writing if that's all you have to write about. If you do it right, you can write to organize your thoughts and save the memories for later on. After all, we can't time travel or relive our past, unless we write about it.

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