Dear Diary, no that doesn’t sound right. Dear Journal, still not feeling it. Dear cute guy I saw at the mall… I’m going to be honest with you, no one cares about who or what you dedicate the pages of your “diary” to, so go crazy! 

In school we write for understanding. When we text, we write for communication. We are constantly writing for other people to see but when we journal, we write for ourselves. 

Channelling all your emotions and letting go of all the filters used when writing for others can be liberating. 

In response to the question “should everyone journal?”, WJPS senior Melissa Bobea said, “Yes if someone is very passive and has many built up emotions. It’s a healthy outlet.” 

With this outlet you can authentically express yourself. Your own secret photo album. Each written page is like a snapshot of the mind in that moment.

Save the polished photographs for everything else. Here we can be grimy and so whole-heartedly open that we start to form confidence within ourselves because we can recognize our faults. From here we can grow. 

Not everyone will want to journal and that’s fine too, WJPS senior Holly Anderson said, “ I don’t think everyone should journal because not everyone likes writing and forcing yourself to do it when you don’t enjoy it can increase your stress. Journaling is great when it’s something you like to do  but if it’s not then don’t.”  

Part of journaling is having the freedom to write whatever you want, so keep in mind that you have the freedom to choose whether you write or not. However I beg of you, if you journal, be kind in the way you talk to yourself. 

 “art journal” by VeganHeart Always is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0