In 5th grade, I was dangerously competitive about EVERYTHING, I always wanted to be the first in line, get the best grade on my test, be picked first when choosing teams in kickball, and I loved to read.

So when my art teacher (who was also a librarian) said whoever cleaned up their table the quickest after we did our oil paintings would get to pick a free book from a pile she had, I was sprinting around the room cleaning everything up like a madman. And of course, my table won. I spent a whole 10 minutes choosing a book and the one I ended up with was “Amanda’s Notebook.” I spent the next few classes reading that book and became obsessed with it. I decided I was going to start my own journal and make it exactly like Amanda’s, lots of colors, drawings, and of course stories about my life. I couldn’t wait to start. I took an unused notebook from my backpack and wrote, and drew, and colored my heart out the whole bus ride home.

And I’ve never stopped. Ever since then, journaling has been such a big part of my life. It is because of the ways it has changed my life for the better that I believe everyone should journal. Especially with all the stress highschoolers have in general, which has undeniably increased heavily within the past few months. Right now is the best time to give journaling a try. According to Intermountain Health Care, journaling is proven to help relieve stress. Whenever I’m overwhelmed or stressed, journaling always helps me calm down and view the situation in a more positive light. It allows me to collect my thoughts and put them down on paper to remind myself that these things aren’t just in my head, and are fixable and/or highly manageable. It lets you get any and every thought you have down on paper so it doesn’t all bottle up in your head until eventually, you explode.

Journaling isn’t just for when you’re sad or stressed though. It’s also super fun to write when you’re in an ecstatic mood too. You know that feeling when something amazing just happened to you, you got an A on that test that you studied super hard for, the ending to your favorite series turned out exactly how you had hoped or a stranger complimented you and it made your day and you just can’t wait to tell someone? Journaling is perfect for these types of moments too! I always get super excited to write after events where I had a particularly good time such as holidays like my birthday, Halloween, Christmas, etc.

Journaling is like venting to a friend about anything and everything, positive and negative, that happened in your day. It is an amazing creative outlet to let out all of that creative energy that everyone has a little bit of inside of them.

What’s unique about having a journal is that it is YOUR journal; which means you can make it into whatever you want. It can be only writing, if you’re more of an artistic person it can be only drawings, you can do collages, collect things like flowers, or a mix of everything. You’re doing this for you and you only which also makes it a great form of self-care and an outlet for creative freedom that might be rare to find in many other places.

For example I have two main journals, one just for writing about my day, putting in pictures of my life, or even writing out my monthly playlists. The other one is a bullet journal. A bullet journal is a planner where you write down events or homework, set goals for the week, month, or year, and basically just plan your life out

My favorite part of journaling though is the memories. So many little things happen to you every day that unless you’re lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a photographic memory, you’re not going to remember. But maybe you’d like to, and that’s where journaling comes in. Writing about your day for just five minutes before bed can help you remember the little things in life that we should all try harder to appreciate.

Another fun experience that comes with journaling is the excitement that comes every time you fill up a full journal. When I finish a journal I go back and read it and remember all the good and bad that happened through those months or even a year that I’d been with that journal. It brings a positive sense of nostalgia and makes you really glad you captured those small moments when you had the chance.

Starting a journal is easy! You don’t need any sort of expensive notebook or pens, all you need is an empty notebook, a pencil and something to share.

If you really don’t have any idea of where to start that’s okay too, there’s tons of inspiration out there all you have to do is google “journaling.” One of my favorite inspirations is Amanda Rach Lee, but remember when you’re looking at other people’s journals, not to compare yours to theirs. Every journal is unique and beautiful in its own way. Everyone has something to write about, all you have to do is put pen to paper and take it from there.