“Isn't it mysterious to begin a new journal like this? I can run my fingers through the fresh clean pages but I cannot guess what the writing on them will be.” - Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy in Spite of Herself
The pictures above are from a couple of my journals. One discovery that I made was that I used to write a TON of poetry. I did not remember writing as much poetry as I found. I am now planning on going through and re-reading all those poems and seeing if there are any that I would like to work with. I had really forgotten how much I used to write. There is so much history in those notebooks. There is a lot of teen angst and a lot of humor! I haven't been through these journals in at least 5 years; I've written sparingly in those five years. Going through and finding all of my old writing made me remember how therapeutic that writing really was. Some of it is really angry and really sad, but I don't remember being really that angry or that sad when I was in high school. I really used these journals as an outlet for how I was feeling.
One way that I used to express myself, that I still use today is I would put quotes at the end of every journal entry. I love using quotations. Quotations from authors, historic figures, movies, characters, songs, anything! It made me laugh to go through my journals and see that quotations that I used (see slide show). It reminds me of what I was reading and listening to and thinking about back them.
In addition to the journals I found about 5 or 6 letters that I had written to friends. Some that I never intended to send and some that I believe I did mean to send and for one reason or another never made it out. I apparently wrote a lot of letters when I was younger. I had trouble sometimes explaining to someone how I was feeling, or why I was angry and when I could not talk to that person I would write it in a letter. Whether or not that letter got sent it still helped me sort things out. Many times those letters weren't sent because the writing of the letter led me to calling the person or talking to them in person. If you're reading this and you don't keep a journal, you should start! It was weird reading them but I am glad that I have them and I need to start keeping one again. They really are a part of me. I would really like to start keeping a book journal, to keep track of what I am reading and what I think of it.
One way that I used to express myself, that I still use today is I would put quotes at the end of every journal entry. I love using quotations. Quotations from authors, historic figures, movies, characters, songs, anything! It made me laugh to go through my journals and see that quotations that I used (see slide show). It reminds me of what I was reading and listening to and thinking about back them.
In addition to the journals I found about 5 or 6 letters that I had written to friends. Some that I never intended to send and some that I believe I did mean to send and for one reason or another never made it out. I apparently wrote a lot of letters when I was younger. I had trouble sometimes explaining to someone how I was feeling, or why I was angry and when I could not talk to that person I would write it in a letter. Whether or not that letter got sent it still helped me sort things out. Many times those letters weren't sent because the writing of the letter led me to calling the person or talking to them in person. If you're reading this and you don't keep a journal, you should start! It was weird reading them but I am glad that I have them and I need to start keeping one again. They really are a part of me. I would really like to start keeping a book journal, to keep track of what I am reading and what I think of it.