Journal

For Christmas, I received a Five-year journal. I love the idea of jotting down a few lines a day and having five years all in one spot.

I've kept a journal off and on for most of my life. Going through them though, I've noticed that I tend to talk about my feelings more than anything else and they were usually only sad or upset feelings. That, of course, is part of why I kept a journal. However, the older I get the more I realize how much I have forgotten and how I wish I had been a little more detailed concerning events in my life.

I don't remember details about trips I've taken, or people's names, or even some events. This is especially evident as I try to scrapbook. I have pictures that help me remember events but I can't remember who was with me or exactly when it occurred. Sometimes, I have only a couple pictures - and sometimes as I look back I realize I took only one or two pictures of really stupid stuff and not of anything that really mattered in the long run.

A lot of times I didn't take pictures because I didn't want to look silly or look like a "tourist." While I was deployed, I didn't take pictures of people or things around me - but I have a lot of pictures of the airplanes. Cool, but they don't really tell the story.

So between the lack of pictures and incomplete journaling, I feel as if I have gaps in my history.

Hopefully, the new journal will help me keep track of people and events a little better. By having limited space to write in, it seems less daunting - sometimes all that white space was overwhelming and kept me from writing anything at all. Now all I keep thinking is that even one line is better than nothing...