Journal experience

As part of the course  INGLS 3135 -that requires this blog- we were assigned an activity that consist on making a journal in which you would write five days a week until you complete forty entries. There was five essential rules to follow while you were writing on the journal which included: don’t crossover, don’t worry about spelling or grammatical errors, go for the jugular, keep your hand moving at all times for ten minutes and the most important don’t think or get logical. After the first 30 entries another task were added to the writing process on the journal, we were asked to draw a spiral inside a circle and on the outsides using a rank from one to three we were supposed to measure our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional feelings. After that we would write a small paragraph in which we would analyze those numbers, why we were feeling that way and how we could improve those numbers.

This activity was really difficult for me because I am not really used to write since my major doesn’t really require much of it. Of all the five rules the most difficult one for me to follow was the don’t think or get logical one because I don’t really understand how could you possibly write without thinking. I think that as the time passed my writing skills were getting worst. The first week I worried about punctuations and grammar in general and my handwriting was pretty and neat but as the weeks passed by I can barely understand what I wrote, and I worried less about grammar –which was in accordance with the rules-. Sometimes I started writing nonsense stuff that I don’t even understand and that’s because it was kind of a torture for me to sit down and start writing. I tried writing during the mornings, daytime and late night before going to bed but I had the same feeling of obligation and lack of motivation no matter what time I try to write. The last two weeks I try using the journal to organize my thoughts but I always ended up planning my day or writing stuff to study for my other classes. I can say that I never got to achieve the goal of writing without thinking that just doesn’t fit into my mind.

I don’t consider myself very creative in the sense of imagining myself doing or living different stuff that I am actually doing so the phrase “internal journey” is very alien for me. I did understand the concept and purpose of it but I couldn’t apply it to myself but I do admire the people that have that ability. I really think that it’s wonderful being able to see yourself in a introspective way and travel inside you, but I do realize that as everything in life it’s not for everyone.  One of the most pleasant journal writing for me was the last one, I set my phone chronometer at 10 minutes and start writing as usual in my notebook. I felt so excited that it was the last entry, it was the first time that I wrote without pushing myself to do it, when I re-read what I wrote it was really coherent and the central theme was about physiology I wrote some thoughts that pop into my mind combining them with theories and it was a really interesting entry.