Back in 2024, one of my best friends gave our friend group a journal for us to write down one thing we were grateful for every day. The book is titled Gratitude One Line a Day, a three-year memory book.
At first, I thought it was such a kind and thoughtful gift that was so unique. This seemed like the perfect timing because we were all seeing each other for the first time since starting college. The book allowed us to stay connected even when we were far apart and starting this next chapter in our lives.
I couldn’t wait till 2025 to start it, so I began writing the day I got it. I was excited to write something I was grateful for every day and was hoping my friends would do the same. We would check in now and then to see if we had all kept up with it, and we did for the first six months. After that, some of us started to get behind or forget. Don’t get me wrong, I most definitely missed a few days, but I always caught back up.
I never thought I’d make it almost two years later still writing in it, but I knew that it was a goal that I wanted to achieve! Instead of writing every day, I wrote when I found time to. My typical schedule is once a week, or sometimes every two weeks.
I wanted to write in it every day before bed, which I did for a while, but life got in the way. So instead, I look back at pictures or text messages I took on that day to jog my memory. As I am writing this, I hope to get into the habit of writing in it every day again so that I don’t forget something I would want to remember.
The idea was to write something you were grateful for, but I just wrote about what I did that day and what made it memorable. To me, this was the same because it made me realize that every day is special and that I am grateful to be alive for all those days.
Even if what I write about seems so small and insignificant, I get to look at it and see how what happened on a certain day may develop into more important things later. As I look back at all my entries, I’m reminded of things I’ve forgotten, people who were strangers that are now my friends, and all the feelings I felt at those times. Whether I didn’t want to get out of bed, or I couldn’t fall asleep the night before an exciting day, I have it in this book to look back on.
At first, I thought days that I “did nothing” made me feel unproductive or bored, but instead they were real and raw moments that every one of us experiences. Now I realize that it was okay to take a break or not want to do anything that day because that’s just life. On those days, I could look back at the more “exciting” entries and realize how fun and meaningful my life could be.
Some of my favorite days are just relaxing on the couch watching my favorite show, and that is something that I now realize is perfectly okay.
We’re all human, and every one of us has good and bad days, and by journaling, I learned to appreciate every emotion, every activity, and every moment that I captured in my writing. Because without every day and every life lesson, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
To this day, I haven’t asked my friends if they still write in it, but either way, I know that I will continue this tradition even when the book ends, so that I can enjoy all that life has to offer.