Writing Wednesday: Journaling
This meme is all over the place and no one seems to know where it started, but if you know feel free to tell me!
I collect a lot of things. Journals somehow became one of those things. I still have my childhood diaries, most of them are not full. I am very bad about keeping up with a journal. I tend to mostly write in times of stress. It defuses me but then the irony is the happier I am with life the less of a record I keep of it. I wish I could get myself to at least be reliable on doing weekly if not daily. Though in some ways this blog is a sort of record. I don’t often mention my personal life but I can also skim through the archives and the books will remind me of what classes I was taking and what I was doing at that time. In some ways more than traditional journaling I wish that I had started the equivalent of this blog earlier in life.
So here is my recommendation: if you have a kid start a reading journal, even if you just put a date and a title. Though if it is a particularly beloved one you might put a few words. I’ve thought about this a lot. Originally I thought maybe you would just start when the kid could read on their own, but there are so many books important to our childhood before we can read ourselves. I know it seems a little silly, the idea of writing an entry for every time you read them they’re favorite picture book, but I think I would enjoy looking back on that now. (I do realize not everyone is the same extreme of book nerd as me.) I wish I had an accurate record of just how many times I have read certain books. I like the idea of this as something that a parent starts and then the kid begins to help and then eventually takes over.
I also wonder if other special purpose journals would be fun. A journal about family vacations. My mother kept a journal of funny things when I was little, like the story behind my most quotable quote “For all the laughter and the love.” I read somewhere about a guy who set up an email account for his baby and is writing the kid emails that someday they will get to read. One of my favorite blogs when I need a smile is Kazooisms which follows the hilarious antics of a little girl, and even as she grows it continues to be hilarious. I’ve only recently begun accidentally skipping recording my gifts received.
What do you think is worth recording? Do you have any special purpose journals?
