"Today it's a question for you to ponder over - and of course write about in your journal. Why do you journal? If you have been doing it for years, what keeps you going? And if you are wishing you were regular journaler, why do you want to be one? What do you think you will get out of it?"
This is a 1:1-copy of Dolly's blogpost:
"Why do you (want to) journal?"
Well, her question made me think over my own intents and purposes according journaling ... finally, I came to the conclusion, my comment on Dolly's post fits in my own blog as well. So here it is:
I've never been a diarist in the classical way. As teenager and young adult I gave journaling a couple of times a try, but it never worked for me. I've always felt, that my thoughts, the parts of my inner self weren't secure within the pages. This made me burn the written pages.
I changed my mind, when I started with journaling during my time abroad. It was a mixture of travel diary, new experiences and daily irrelevances. These books are still very precious for me and I'm more than happy to have them.
These days, in my daily life, I keep a dream diary, which is also my journal for creativity and art. These pages are still very personal and I won't show them to anyone ... but I'm glad to show others the little stories and art projects developed from those lines. Besides, after discovering my inner artist, I'm thinking of an art journal ... Well, we'll see! :-)
For myself I can say, once caught fire, it's hard to stop, even if I don't keep a regular journal. It's more that I see myself developing over the years, in writing, drawing, catching the mood ... everything!
Seeing my development over the years, and just generally being able to see the record of my life and growth as a person is what motivates me to keep improving my journals. My earlier journals are nothing but angsty rants - typical teenage stuff - but now I try to add all the colours and flavours of my life to my journals. It's an ongoing experiment, and constant learning process. But I LOVE IT!
Hi Dolly,
first of all: Thanks for answering your own blogpost here! :-)
With all my heart I'm happy with you, that you have all those journals full of memories and a given "proof" of your own development!
As written above ... I'm not this type of person! But in a way, that's okay for me. But in another way, my yearning side wishes to have something like that. *sigh* Here they are again - the two inner sides of myself!