Journals Then and Now (Autobio 3)

A positive schooled experience with literacy learning I recall was in third grade when my class began writing in journals. Everyday, the teacher shared a quote or asked a general question usually about what we could remember about yesterday’s topics. My favorite journals to respond to were “wonder why” tasks. For example, the teacher will say “I wonder why the sky is blue” and in our journals we would do our best to answer that question however imaginatively we wanted. I often wanted to use words that I didn’t know how to spell. Even though it was acceptable in those days to sound it out as close as possible, I felt compelled to have the correct spelling. We were allowed to share our journals to our peers for a moment and I hated hearing I was a ‘dummy’ from a fellow peer for not spelling a certain word correctly. It was fun sharing my ideas with anyone and hearing their take on it as well.

To some degree I still write journals attempting to answer the ‘wonder whys’ of my life. Even if no one reads it, writing helps me make sense of my jumbled thoughts. Sometimes I swear I can explain better in writing than with speech. There’s a kind of permanence to writing that can serve as proof or maybe like a map to my past self. Writing helps to preserve memories and we can travel to our old mentalities. I get such a kick out of reading my old elementary, middle school, and high school diaries. I can’t believe the way I saw the world and myself in those days! I’m not ready to share those embarrassing stories yet but they sure are entertaining.