“Dear Journal….” Regardless of the amount of times that I’ve tried to switch it up, it always ends up starting off the same way. Every single entry, since 2008 in my music notes journal. That beautiful leather (don’t send the animal rights people after me!) journal that I ordered from Barnes & Noble what I feel was yesterday! Until the other day while writing in my journal about my new journal (keep up!) I flipped back to the very first entry and it read “9/12/08.” Picture included for proof, you’re welcome! I realized just how long ago that “yesterday” truly is.

I’ve kept some type of journal, my entire life. I’d call them my Diary in the beginning years. But then I felt that “Journal” was more mature. Doug Funnie might have some type of influence on that belief. My first Diary was a Lion King one. I think it was gifted to me or maybe I purchased it at a scholastic book-fair? But I was 8 years old at the time. I remember writing an “About me” section lol. Funny now that I mention it I realize that I sorta do that with every journal of mine. Something like a summary of where I’m at in that stage of life. I find that it’ll be helpful in case I go back to read any of my old journals. Which I do sometimes. I always laugh, and give myself credit for overcoming whatever I overcame. It’s a reminder that there is always something to overcome in life. After that Diary I owned a colorful Lisa Frank spiraled notebook that had a button to hold it shut. I remember it having different color pages. Some purple, some pink. In between the years I’d use any interesting looking notebook that I owned and make it into a journal. Id even staple blank printing pages together and make my own. Point is that I’ve always needed and created an outlet to lay down my thoughts because there can be many!

I started using the internet as a journal back in the year 2000? I used Yahoo, AOL Homepages, Angelfire, and others. I then stumbled upon a website Xanga.com and joined that community. You-tube’s original Beauty Guru now turned business CEO to her own Beauty line, Michelle Phan started out on Xanga. It was through her that I started to get on You-tube and even knew about it. She was a college student at the time. From Xanga, many of us transitioned to Livejournal.com. I still get notifications from that account ie birthday reminders. I still keep it active because—Nostalgia. And it is a journal. Just online. Livejournal offered the option in which your account/journal could be kept private and you had to allow access for people to read it. And thanks to this many of us would be raw and open, some were very open! Don’t get it twisted many of us were open even on Xanga because the internet wasn’t really accessible to the World. I mean, you can go online by using your cellphones nowadays! Back then the only cool kid I “knew” with a cellphone was Zack Morris. So yeah, we would be raw on there too and vulnerable, honest, and real. (I’m still in contact with many of my girls from there! Some of my greatest friendships developed there!) Since things are much more different today, it is why I find it a little more difficult to be open on here as Id like to be. Because I don’t want everything about me out there. What I share or over share with you all leads back to —I just want to help others. Help others know that “hey, I’m not alone” or “Wow, so this is normal…” the list goes on! That’s always been my goal. I’m enjoying helping myself along the way too. Cant forget to do that! This quarantining has made it difficult to do at times. Many times I’m honest.

This is my new Journal! It was a bit of a splurge but it’s a birthday gift to myself. And I want my journals to hold up over the years, so it’s well worth it! Get yours at Rustico.com!

Having an outlet and a place to put my thoughts somewhere other than in my mind really helps me! I find that often times while I am writing, its almost like I am meditating and I get answers to my own questions, or my guide comes through for me with a message or a vision.

I’ve been consciously making the effort to write multiple days of the week. It was getting to the point where I’d skip months and months at a time between entries. And it felt like I was just always playing catch up. It resulted in me not enjoying my time when I’d read back or disappointment when I realized that I never wrote about a specific day/event. These days I look forward to my writing session. Tip: If you’re new to journaling try to write more often. I say this because my hand would hurt after I’d write long entries. Not as much now because I’ve been in the groove of things. I blame it on technology! We’re all getting used to typing and relying on our thumbs! Thumbs need all the credit we can give them, lol. Happy Journaling!

Love & light always, Cin.