What is Your Most Prized Possession?
What one material thing holds your heart over all others? What is the one item (not including people or pets) that you would save in the event of a fire?
For me, it’s a black Moleskin journal that I received a few years ago. Its edges are worn and dirty, and I’ve stuffed so much into it that it bulges in the center and is impossible to stand up on a bookshelf. Nevertheless, this is the item I want to keep with me forever and then pass on to family after I’m gone.
Why?
Because this is the first journal I’ve ever seriously filled out. I was gifted this journal on a bus in Iceland, the very first day of my semester abroad. It was a requirement to fill it with at least 30 entries, but I became obsessive about writing in it. As we traveled through Iceland and England, Scotland and Ireland, France and Belgium, I scribbled down the events of nearly every day for three months. My journal traveled eight countries by bus and plane, boat and train, taxi and bicycle, (and even horseback) as I filled its pages with memories.
Now, it’s been nearly three years since my great adventure, and the memories in my head have started to fade. It wasn’t until I was home that I became so grateful something inspired me to write everything down. My journal is full of precious stories, photos, ticket stubs, lists, maps, notes and even a few receipts, and I hope I’ll have it forever.
After this Journal...
I started carrying journals with me wherever I go. As a writer and a sentimental person, I love being able to jot down ideas, images and inspirations whenever I come upon them. And to all you writers, I challenge you to do the same. I fully believe that journaling can benefit you in almost every one of your life’s endeavors. Not only does it allow you to decompress after an experience and store memories, but it also allows you to remain in your creative writing mindset more often.
It is strange at first to get used to pausing to write down a few simple words. However, I promise later on in your writing and your life, these words will keep you going in this creative journey.
I promise, these small words are the big things. The things you thought seemed so miniscule or even petty. The things you never dreamed you would remember as important.
Look up. They are.
They are important, and they are grand, and they are beautiful. They are the little details of life that may go unnoticed by most. But not you anymore. You, who call yourself writers. You, with your sentimental glances that try to take in each individual pixel of what they call “the big picture.” You, with your black journal in hand, ready to write down anything you fear might slip away. You, with your outstretched arms looking to embrace this moment, this feeling, and live in it for a while.
Milestones
Most of the time we live our lives for milestones. Huge moments lined up one by one. A bucket list ruled by society, family, friends, religion. Check, check, check. The milestones remind me of those toys in waiting rooms, the ones with the little colorful plastic beads that you can slide down the metal wires. And you take one and move it down the curly line until it reaches the end. Then you grab the next one and the next until you’re all out of beads. But then they’re all smashed together, and there’s no more room to breathe. There’s no room for error. There’s no room for what you thought were small words.
The quiet mornings before anyone is awake when you sip tea and read a book, and a cat snores next to you. The hours spent talking in a dimly-lit coffeehouse. The poem written on a Tuesday night because you had to. The afternoons alone in a museum. The conversations in the car when you should go inside but don’t want to. The bubble baths and fluffy comforters and hotel cappuccinos. The rain droplets on a bus window and the cold wind that takes your breath and threatens to push you, to move you.
Let it.
Just Write
Let it pick you up and move your feet farther than the milestones and planned out futures and bucket lists. Hit the end of the wire, and go past it. Live in these moments. Wrap yourself in them. A dear friend of mine told me that once. Pick up that cozy blanket you love and wrap yourself in this feeling right here, right now. It’s not small, and neither are you, writers.
Take your black journal with you everywhere. For thoughts and ideas, for bits of conversation and quotes from books that give you chills, for little details like the kind blue-green eyes and the red lipstick. And write it all down—don’t forget a thing. Because these are the big things, my friends.
Look up.
You don’t want to miss them.
