The Joys of Journaling

Everyone who knows me knows these two things about me: I’m a major over-thinker and I can never, ever make a decision. I over-analyse, painstakingly create numerous pro/con lists (none of which have much effect) and dwell on the tiniest details until my brain looks like Cher Horowitz’s room mid-fashion frenzy. 

Something that has always helped me un-muddle all my thoughts is journaling. It may perhaps seem trivial – scrapbooking, collaging, deep questions to get to know yourself, poems, little trinkets and keep-sakes –  yet it is the one thing that has always stuck with me.  

I started my first ever diary when I was eight years old. Of course, back then it wasn’t quite as reflective or productive as it may be now, but I detailed the events of my day: what I had for dinner, how me and a friend argued over who to invite to a sleepover, silly things like that. I carried on the habit late into secondary school where my worries became about studying, gossip, which prom dress to wear or A Levels to take.  

College for me was when I really began to take journaling seriously. I wrote consistently every day with all my musings, every thought - light or dark - that I was dwelling on. My journal became a safe haven, a place of exposure, of secrecy and of comfort. I’d bring it to work with me for my breaks, I took it to Paris on my first ever trip abroad, I’d bring it to the river and sit for hours under my favourite willow tree and write. It became almost a part of me. 

Christina's Journal Pages

On coming to university, I still wrote every day. I have memories stored in the pages of my books: freshers, feelings of loneliness, meeting new people, all my first impressions and many, many moments of hangxiety. I have written memories I will keep hold of forever, things I can reminisce on or perhaps moments of regret I will never read again. I wrote about nostalgia, jotting down jokes told that I didn’t want to forget, first dates, a breakup, travelling, academic stress and still occasionally wondering if I’d made the right decision to study in York. 

I realised the other day that I had. I picked my modules a few weeks ago and I found one called the “Writer’s Notebook”. Inspired by this kind of note taking, journaling and diary keeping, it encourages you to collect thoughts from your day, create and craft in the footsteps of writers before (it reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s unabridged journals, two years after buying it, I’m still rereading and re-annotating them). Seeing a module on my university’s page like this highlighted to me the importance of what everyone says about journaling. It’s not just an aesthetic or a creative habit. Instead, I think it represents what so many writers have done before me - searching for a way to express and understand their own thoughts, hoping one day someone else will discover them and find a piece of themselves in what they read.