The Art of Trying is my little corner of Her Campus at FSU, where I step outside my comfort zone and dive into something new, whether it’s a hobby, craft, class, or trend. I’ll explore what each experience has to offer, sharing all the highs and hiccups along the way. I hope to inspire you to take that first step toward the unfamiliar and experience the art of trying.
If you’re like me, journaling has been an on-again, off-again habit throughout your life. You might occasionally journal on good days, but seem to find yourself picking up the pen more often in times of distress as an outlet for your racing thoughts.
So, your journal then becomes a record of some of your worst times, rather than some of your best. It becomes a reminder of things in the past that we’d rather forget. But what about the good, exciting things in our lives? Trips with friends, holidays with family? Or what about even the most average of days? Ordering your everyday coffee to accompany you in studying tirelessly, going on a walk around campus, and ending the night with a good movie with your friends?
Should the beauty in the mundane everyday not be commemorated as much as the few displeasing, uncomfortable times that you needed a blank page to vent to? Sure, we have pictures and videos, but they’re mostly digital these days, and they can only capture so much detail, rather than the feelings and little moments behind the scenes.
In the past, I’d pick up my journal only to vent, using the pages as an outlet for my stress. It really can help immensely to put your thoughts down on paper and get a clear view of things. While this is a great practice to have, I believe journaling can help you in so many different ways, and it doesn’t just have to be done during troubling times.
Without writing down what was happening in my life, I noticed that many things were floating away from me without letting me grasp them. Great conversations with strangers, special moments with friends, days spent learning interesting things in class; all of them began to slip away, and my only record of these days was when I was upset or angry. This made me realize that if I wanted to remember my life, especially the little moments, before I forgot them, I had to write it down.
I wholeheartedly believe that journaling is one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself. Journaling helps keep you grounded and improve your self-awareness. It’s a way to make your life more tangible in our ever-increasing digital world.
The Journaling Experience
As I mentioned previously, I’d usually only journal to vent. However, my true journey in journaling started during my first semester at FSU, which I spent abroad. This was one of the first times in my life that I started to journal consistently.
I’d write about my day, my weekend, or my most recent trips, and glue in museum tickets, train tickets, postcards, receipts, menus, business cards, photo booth pictures, everything I could. I think there’s even a leaf from Amsterdam stuck somewhere in there! This journal reflected my time abroad in both written and physical form and goes far beyond the pictures and videos I have on my phone of this time in my life.
Reading this journal evokes a multitude of emotions and memories. I look back on my time spent immersed in the colors of Cinque Terre in Italy, spent in the ocean among sunburned faces under the beating September sun, and I’m soaked in nostalgia. I look back on the nights out in Florence, strolling giddily through the magical city with my new friends, and I can easily imagine myself back there.
After this transformative time, I kept up with this practice and continued to journal about my life. The consistency came and went, but I wasn’t only writing down the bad things in my life, like I once was; I was also writing down the good things.
This year, though, I made it a goal to journal every single day. I was tired of wishing I were more consistent with this hobby; I knew I just needed to do it. So, every night thus far, even after going out in College Town with friends, or even when I went camping at the start of the new year, I wrote about my day.
Although it’s still January, I’ve already made a decent dent in my new journal, and I feel very accomplished. This hobby is so simple, yet I can already feel all the benefits. The main benefit that I’m excited about is looking back on these days when I’m older and seeing how I spent my time. I’m currently in my last semester of college, which is nothing short of special. Why not immortalize these days in my journal forever?
Tips for Beginners
Luckily, journaling is as easy as you want it to be, and you can make it entirely your own. If you decide to journal about your day, it doesn’t have to be long; it can just be a general overview of what you did during the day, or even just a few sentences. You can just list three things you’re grateful for, filling your journal with gratitude.
There are many other ways to journal, too. You can junk journal, where you glue in different artifacts from your life, like a receipt of your everyday coffee order. In 10 to 20 years, you might’ve completely forgotten such a vital part of your college life and routine, but upon looking back and seeing the receipt, the nostalgia will rush in!
You can also journal about books you read, movies you watch, languages you learn, recipes you try, random thoughts you have, habits you want to track, and dreams you want to manifest. The possibilities are endless, but the underlying factor, as with most hobbies, is to be consistent!
So, I encourage you to find that journal you abandoned a few months ago, pick up a pen, and start writing. Write a few sentences or write until your hand hurts, but stay consistent. Your future self will thank you immensely!
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