A journaling journey from diary to blog

I love blogging and so far that enjoyment hasn’t waned. After 4 years (or is it now 5, I lose count). I think the continued enjoyment is because it’s about us and a way of journaling our life as N grows up. My blog is my journal, my diary, an extension of our life and just part of every day now. Whether it will continue that way as N grows up I don’t know.

I pretty much blog daily. Sometimes I miss a day or 2 when I’m busy, or just have a photo post to do. But mostly I have blog posts go up every day. That’s not easy with a child, a full time job and a dancing hobby. Let’s just say blogging has turned me into a night owl.

From my early days of writing stories which were based on myself and my friends mostly fancying boys, to keeping a daily diary from the age of 13 to 16. I’ve always enjoyed writing without really realising it. But it’s always been factually based. Fiction or poetry definitely isn’t for me. And I’ve always enjoyed reading them back…before throwing out my past diaries and evidence of stories before I moved out of home.

My diary habits during my teenage years changed according to the type of diary I had that year. I started off with a chunky A5 diary, a page to view. Because 13 year old girls need to record who said what at school, and write weekly top 10 lists of who they and their best friend fancied.

The following year I had a smaller version but still with plenty of room to write in. It was the following year I was bought a 5 year diary. That’s really not the way to go if you want to write anything other than where you went that day. By that stage I was only writing when something interesting happened….’saw SG playing the drums at music school. He’s gorgeous’. Can you tell that despite studying, playing music, dancing and doing sport, I really thought a lot about boys?

The 5 year diary spelled the end of my diary writing days. A year later and my new notebook I was using, had little writing in. I think unless you have a schedule of writing, or get into the habit of writing every day, it’s harder to keep it up.

Reading my diaries back before I moved out of home was lovely. It really makes you warm inside at the memories. I think that’s ultimately why I blog and continue to write. I write for me (and for N to read in future) and to remember. And that’s what journaling is about.

When I hear about others who keep journals, I wonder whether I would start one. Bullet journaling is really popular now, but to me it’s like a ‘to do’ list and I have lots of those on post its and calendars. I’m not sure I’d ever go back and read that again to see what I did. It feels too impersonal and too work-like. If I was more artistic, I might mind map my day’s thought, or doodle. But I’m too logical and structured for that, and definitely not an artist.

To me, my blog is my journal, and I can see me continuing to write it as long as possible.

Do you keep a journal? How long have you been doing it?

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