Journalling the Old Fashioned Way

I have gone back to pen and paper journalling and that was something I never expect to happen. After all, I'm quite a gadgeteer.

I started to keep diaries when I was still schooling but gave up as I cannot keep up with daily journalling. I have only gone back into journalling several years ago with the advent of PDAs and then the more sophisticated mobile phones, starting with my Palm V, Palm IIIc, Palm Zire, then the Nokia 8310 and the Sony Ericsson W580i (I missed that phone, I lost it). I soon changed my phone to the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4. There were great apps available for use but I still find it hard to write with buttons and touch screens. My journal entries are usually short and for whatever reasons, I felt uninspired to write. I seem to sound the same every day, every entry. So finally, I decided to try going back to paper and pen.

I went to the bookstore hoping to get myself a nice diary to write on. I was reading Laurie Helgoe - it was Helgoe who inspired me to get back to journalling - and she wrote about letting the journal choose you, like Harry Potter and his wand in Ollivander's. I thought that was quite brilliant. Well, it obviously did not happen like in the book or the movie but I did have the journal "choose" me. I checked out several but soon held on to a red leather organizer/diary and I felt that I owned it. And so it is.

So I started journalling in pen and paper but to my dismay it did not feel natural. I felt like I have lost touch in writing. My writing looked horrible, I thought faster than I could pen it down and I kept missing words. However, I did not stop and thankfully after a few days, it all came back to me.

I am now really cherishing the time and experience of writing, of journalling. It still irks me for not being able to "delete" or "backspace" or make neat changes but I am finally journalling again.

pearlie