Beginning Entries
I'm not really sure why I began to journal. I know that when I was younger, I called it "writing in my diary," although the type of writing which it included was more similar to a journal entry than anything. From the time that I started journaling, at 8 years old, to my current 22 year-old self, I have never yet completely filled a journal from the front page to the last page. I'm very inconsistent in my writing, sometimes going as long as a year without a single entry. I like to skip pages, start in the back, write upside down, and start writing in a completely blank journal when I haven't finished 3 or 4 other ones. Looking at all of the evidence, one might even say that I am a journal collector! But I value each and every journal I keep, whether they are written by my eight-year-old self, or in the present.
My early journal entries were typical of the writing of an 8 year-old. Every entry is brief and to the point. Even when I am writing about an exciting adventure from a family vacation, I merely state the facts and the things that were on my mind when I was writing, such as the food that we ate for supper that day. An example from a typical entry:
9/18/1999
Today is agood day. I found my Diary Keys and even though I lost my soccer game It was very fun. Although my brother Stephen and me keep fighting I've had a good day. We sold most of the candy bars for Ayso Soccer. I wish we could of sold more. this is the second day I am writing in my Diary. Because I couldn't find the keys you know. My Moms cooking a lot of food right now.
As you can see, as a young writer, I had many spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in my entries, but I was excited about writing in my own special place about whatever I felt like writing about. This meant that I used my journal as a place to keep a record of daily activities. One entry from a vacation goes like this:
7/5/2001
Today we got up at 5:30 because my Dad had forgotten to change the alarm to 6:00. I took a shower and then we ate breakfast and hit the road. Today was very exciting. we rode a subway and then went exploring in a different part of boston. I got tired of walking on away to a museum but that was okay. We missed a church service at eleven something so we went to a five oclock one. When we went to the cabin I went swimming. what an exciting day!
In this case, about two years later from the first entry that I quoted, I improved my grammar and vocabulary a little bit, but the journal is still my own place to record events exactly how I want to write them. The only person correcting and reading these entries is myself, so I feel free to say just what I want to say. I think that writing in my journal was the beginning of my love for writing.
My early journal entries were typical of the writing of an 8 year-old. Every entry is brief and to the point. Even when I am writing about an exciting adventure from a family vacation, I merely state the facts and the things that were on my mind when I was writing, such as the food that we ate for supper that day. An example from a typical entry:
9/18/1999
Today is agood day. I found my Diary Keys and even though I lost my soccer game It was very fun. Although my brother Stephen and me keep fighting I've had a good day. We sold most of the candy bars for Ayso Soccer. I wish we could of sold more. this is the second day I am writing in my Diary. Because I couldn't find the keys you know. My Moms cooking a lot of food right now.
As you can see, as a young writer, I had many spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in my entries, but I was excited about writing in my own special place about whatever I felt like writing about. This meant that I used my journal as a place to keep a record of daily activities. One entry from a vacation goes like this:
7/5/2001
Today we got up at 5:30 because my Dad had forgotten to change the alarm to 6:00. I took a shower and then we ate breakfast and hit the road. Today was very exciting. we rode a subway and then went exploring in a different part of boston. I got tired of walking on away to a museum but that was okay. We missed a church service at eleven something so we went to a five oclock one. When we went to the cabin I went swimming. what an exciting day!
In this case, about two years later from the first entry that I quoted, I improved my grammar and vocabulary a little bit, but the journal is still my own place to record events exactly how I want to write them. The only person correcting and reading these entries is myself, so I feel free to say just what I want to say. I think that writing in my journal was the beginning of my love for writing.