My Journey Journal Experience

This might have been my all time favorite assignment for a class. I’ve always wanted to keep a journal, but because of time and I guess plain laziness I’ve never had one. The “anti”-rules were simple enough:

1.        Don’t cross out
2.        Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar
3.        Don’t think or get logical
4.        Go for the jugular
5.        Keep your hand moving

I guess I should add “Have fun” as the sixth rule, because I actually had fun while doing it.

                After doing 41 entries of my journal I can honestly say that my writing style changed. At first it was super hard not to think about anything and write the first thing that came to mind. I actually wanted to create a story about my day or something like that, but I conditioned myself to just “keep my hand moving” and not think about anything. In the first few entries I struggled a lot and it’s noticeable. Even my handwriting looks neat. But there’s a transition that starts showing up about mid way through, where my handwriting is freer.

                I thought about crossing out so many times, and it was always because I made a spelling mistake. I started getting anxious and I felt like I needed to fix those mistakes, and instead of crossing anything out, I wrote the word over and over until I felt like I could forget about it.

                My favorite "anti"-rule, by far is "Go for the jugular". I feel like I went in to KILL. If what was on my mind was a disagreement with a friend or family member, I could just let it all out and breathe a sigh of relief when my 10 minutes were up. Sometimes if I was very angry, I went over my 10 minutes of writing time. This served as some sort of therapy now that i think about it. 
            On one of my entries I started writing about the noises I heard, there were people talking, someone chewing too loudly, and even my own foot tapping the chair leg. I was in the student center of the University. A girl I know sat nearby and I just went off! I can't stand her at all, and I wrote about how annoying she is, and started writing to my journal why I think she's annoying (she's a liar and has spread rumors about people she hardly knows). I treated my journal as a friend, a confidant, if you will. 

           Writing on my Journal has definitely helped me out. It's helped me arrange my thoughts and feelings. It helped me deal with my emotions, especially my anger and my frustration. 
           I decorated it according to my inner and outer journey. The outer journey is displayed notably by a map of Puerto Rico. Even though I have traveled almost all over the world, I chose my home island because it's the place I get lost the most. Also because I love road trips. 
          My inner journey is shown by an image depicting my battle with anxiety and depression. Since that's mostly part of my past (even though I'm still battling with both) I put it on the back of the journal. It's something that's part of the past but not forgotten. The front of the journal is adorned by a series of pictures of people, or things, that have helped me battle my demons. The most important are my best friends, my parents, and my fiance. There's also a picture of me as a baby and as an adult. I wanted those pictures as a reminder that no matter what my story is, I've got an adventurous journey up ahead, but I must always remember the past.

This has been my journey so far