Bookworm

Journaling

I am currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love," which is about her travels through Italy, India, and Indonesia and her search for answers about her purpose in life. It has made me realize two things: I need to travel more and I need to keep a journal. While her book isn't exactly a word-for-word journal (I think she waited to write it until her trip was finished, as a sort of memoir) it had a lot of great insights and discoveries she made, and it made me miss the days I used to keep a journal and write about all the great epiphanies I thought I was having about what was really going on in the seventh grade social hierarchy. I used to be an avid journaler, but when blogging got really popular I got tired of it and I didn't know who was reading my entries. Blogging for a newspaper is one thing, but blogging about your personal life without knowing who might read it is something completely different. It took the sacredness away from journaling.

But now that I have been inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert, I think one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to start journaling again. I would like to look back some time in the future and know what I learned in 2008. Sometimes when I look back at old journals I even find a new insight that I didn't remember ever learning in the first place. I think to myself, that was pretty smart. I should have remembered that. It would have saved me a lot of trouble if I had.

My other resolution inspired by the book is to travel more. I am kind of cheating at this because I am already going on a study abroad trip this summer so that makes it an easy resolution. I am going to London and Paris for a total of 9 days for a humanities seminar. I wish it could be longer, but I am just excited to be able to go at all. I will definitely want to keep track of my experiences there with my journal, and lots of pictures.

I really love when a book inspires me to change something in my life. I mean, it's not even making my list of favorite books. It's just an OK book. But maybe just because it's a new year (and coincidentally, my 21st birthday- I'm a New Year's baby), I am ready to make some changes.

Feel free to tell me about your new year's resolutions or books that have inspired you to try something new!

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