Journaling

I absolutely love love love this article by Emma Dajska called "Where Your Book Begins" in Rookie Magazine. In short, the article talks about expressing yourself through journaling. Your journal can be done using any type of medium (writing, drawing, painting, even powerpoint). I love expressing myself artistically, but I sometimes become frustrated because I'm not very good at art. I tend to compare myself to others constantly, and journaling isn't any different. Although I consider myself to be a fairly good writer I never have been content to just journal. I think journaling, no matter what form you use, can be very therapeutic. I some day hope to use it in my own classroom with my students if I am ever lucky enough to land a job as a teacher because I think it can be very beneficial.

After reading this article I was all gung-ho about journaling, but then I started comparing myself to the examples in the article thinking I would never be able to make my journal "good enough." However, I realized a few things. The first was that I don't need to impress anyone. The second was that I had actually been "journaling" since 7th or 8th grade, I just never thought of it as journaling. I actually have over seven journals. I decided to share these with you, but I left my actual written journals out because they are more personal letters to God that I would like to keep to myself.

[ONE] Harry Potter Notebook

I am in love with Harry Potter. I used to keep a zip up binder full of all my Harry Potter articles and other papers that I collected since seventh grade. A few years later I decided to paste them into a notebook, and my Harry Potter journal was born.

[TWO] Drawing and Sketch Notebook

My second notebook is dedicated to drawing and doodling. I practice a lot of hand lettering and small comic drawings. I also use it to practice more difficult pencil drawings. I wish I used this journal more often but I get too frustrated because I'm not naturally talented at drawing.

[THREE] Global Warming Notebook

Fun fact: I was obsessed with stopping global warming my junior/senior year of high school. I wanted to become an activist for getting people involved and aware. Obviously, I gave up on that goal but at the time I made a notebook full of article clippings on global warming, from what activists were saying to ways I could be environmentally friendly.

[FOUR] Collage Notebook

This was the first journal I ever made. I have always spent a lot of time by myself and this was a way to keep me occupied. The upper pictures are colleges I made for the covers of my assignment notebooks in high school. I had a lot of magazines, and I used to cut them up when the collection would get too big.

[FIVE] Christian Journaling

This is one of my few written journals. It is mostly filled with notes from church, Bible studies, and books I read. At first it was also a personal journal as well until I decided to separate the two so that I could keep the other journal private. I like to look back on this one to be reminded about my Creator. Filling this journal up with notes always gave me a lot of joy.

[SIX] Lesson Planner

I started this journal during my student teaching. I have a terrible memory! The worst! When I brought this up to my mentor teacher and my supervisor because I was stressed out that I would always forget some piece of information or another they told me that it was okay to carry around a notebook in order to make sure I keep on topic and remind myself of what I need to. It also allowed me to be crafty and artsy in a career that sometimes isn't known to be so.

[SEVEN] Catch All Journal

This is my absolutely favorite journal. I always told myself that if my house were to catch on fire I would run back in for this. Are you like me and have papers, pictures, and notes but have no where to put it? I hate clutter and I neeeded a way to organize my life. I partially came up with this idea from my friend, Haruna, who made a similar notebook while she was an exchange student. She had a notebook and a lot of it was pictures of bodies with different heads. It was so funny and looked like fun. I decided to make it a fun notebook as well as other papers I had collected over the years. This notebook is very eclectic but looking through it it is definitely a journal of what I used to be and who I am now.