I have been a sporadic diary writer since I was about eleven years old. I would always start a new notebook or a new year with big plans of writing a diary entry every day and including photos and anecdotes and memories and in my head it was going to be this amazing venture.
It never quite turned out that way, when you're eleven you have very few things occur in daily life to write about and after three or four entries of what I did at school I would inevitably get bored and forget all about it. This was the running theme for years, the same problems occurred when I started work - not enough happened for me to write about and nothing exciting was happening that I would want to look back and remember so I just got bored with the idea or didn't bother at all.
This all changed last June - I was going away for the summer to work in America at a summer camp and my manager gave me a journal as a going away present. My mum suggested that I use it to write down my experiences and memories from my trips, but I didn't have very high expectations of myself considering my track record. Regardless of my past indiscretions I turned the first few pages into a sort of scrapbook, with photos from home of me and my best friend and me and my sister and good luck and bon voyage cards I had received. I slid it into the inside pocket of my carry on with all the intentions to write on the plane and every day after I arrived.
It didn't quite go to plan at first, I arrived on 14th June and it took me until 23rd to write anything at all. I wrote everything I thought my family would want to hear if I was speaking to them and once I put pen to paper I just couldn't stop writing! I stopped putting pressure on myself to write in my journal every.single.day and without the stress of having to think of something to write about it was something I really enjoyed. I wrote in my journal all through camp, it was like having someone from home to talk to, I wrote about EVERYTHING and some entries went over 5 pages in length. I stapled and sellotaped photos and park tickets and little stickers in the pages as keepsakes of my travels and I didn't stop when camp ended. I have almost filled that little journal from last June and am on the lookout for a brand new one for when it's done.
I now have my journal nearby at all times, it usually sits on my desk or my bookshelf and it's nice to pick it up if I've had a busy few weeks and just write what's been happening or what I've got going on. It's a little place where I can vent or work out my thoughts and it'll be something nice to look back on when I'm older. I think it's important to keep memories close and although I have the blog now where I am keeping things in order, it's nice to have something old school and physical that I can keep and treasure. I have so many things in there that remind me of different times - polaroids, a drawing by one of my campers, stickers, cards and so many other little bits.
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