I've journaled since I was in middle school, and the records I kept have been a source of hilarity and frustration for me as I grow older. I used to journal in a very "flow of consciousness" kind of way, just writing down the thoughts that occurred to me in the moment, but without any context about what the thoughts were actually about! For example, I'd make one whole entry a list of hypothetical questions such as "What does it really mean to love? And how can I do that? Is servanthood something I will ever be able to enact in my day-to-day life?"

The end. That's all I'd write. It made for really, really boring reading. I've tried to up the narrative quality of my journals throughout the years, because I know that someday I'll read them over and wish that I had said something about the day I had, or the conversations I had with my friends.

Sometimes I'll journal in the third person, which really ups the narrative quality and makes me think differently about my day! "Today, as Kyla sat down to journal her thoughts about today, she reflected that if anyone read over her journals, they'd probably think, "wow, third person, eh? What a strange person Kyla is."