I have always been an observer. I witnessed my seven year old self holding a pen and notebook in the middle of a party while watching a recorded video of my cousin’s first birthday. I could not believe and even remember that I was standing there and watching people play games and have fun! I silently laughed at myself for being that girl.
Ever since I could remember I would write and draw things that fancied me. It started in school where our teachers asked us to write on a diary for our English class. There were also journalism contests where our teacher asked me to write for editorial. Then when I entered college, there were more essays and reflection papers.
The next thing I knew was that I was writing for fun and comfort. I feel like I can better express myself through writing because I can think long enough before words are written.
I started with one journal. And it was for prayer and learnings about God, the Bible and what I think God is trying to tell me. Sometimes, I would think of other things and wrote them there even though they were not related about these learnings and prayer. It was because I thought of them while doing my quiet time.
So I started a new journal for things other than that. I also wrote words that inspired me. Sometimes there were words that I would be reminded of throughout the day, and it would really strike me. There were times where I would put reflections from the movie I have watched or books that I read. There were also times where I would put quotes that I would like to remember from movies, songs and books. I wrote business ideas too.
When I moved back to my hometown, I added another journal for collecting photos I took for the week. It was a one-page collage of the week that has passed. A summary of what had happened, some highlights and events that took place. At the end of the year, I would always enjoy looking at the weeks that had gone by through photos!
At the start of the year, I also thought of using another journal to record some learnings about finance and business. I write here things that I learned from experience or from the things that I’ve watched or read. I thought I would be able to write here consistently but I was wrong. I became very busy and would often forget to write what I have learned. Sometimes I am just too lazy to write after a long day.
Then I have a daily journal where I write things that had happened. But because I am often lazy, I would do it the following day. Some days are eventful than others. Some days, I would be too descriptive while some days I would be too broad. As of this writing, I wished I was more reflective of what had happened throughout the day and combined these two journals instead. I also wished I gave these two dated journals away. These were both gifts from our supplier and they might be better used in some other way.
I thought my journal line up is now complete, but my friend gifted me another one! She knew I like to write and plan so she gifted me a planner. It is very beautiful, but I received it late (around February). It was my fault that I couldn’t meet with her when we planned to last December! So I made good use of it as a gratitude journal. Every day I would write there things that I am grateful for. I also write there the books that I have read this year and my monthly evaluation for the goals that I have set.
And lastly, one that I have acquired recently is the Q&A book journal. I saw it on Fully Booked a month before my birthday and decided to give it a try. It is a five year journal where I hope I can see my own growth as a thinker. I saw some friends had the same type of journal. A friend shared on one facebook post a page of his ten year journal and I got interested. Another friend shared her one sentence a day journal too. Let’s see if this is sustainable for me!
Now that I have taken account of the journals that I keep, I realized that I have so much! The finance journal and the daily journal became too burdensome that I did not dare to make efforts to accomplish. I should have only kept five journals in total or maybe even less!
I also realized that I have written less this year compared to the previous years. But still I enjoy writing because it slows down time and makes me think. But keeping too many journals isn’t necessary. I am thankful that I had this time to reflect on the journals that I own and how to better do journaling next year.
Nature & Reflections 