The End of a Journal

I get really sentimental and particular about my journals. I've written in one since I learned how to even kind of write (age 5!), and I've kept every single one throughout the years. 

My tastes in journals have changed since I was a wee-5-year-old. I used to be OK with spiral bound notebooks and frilly patterns, but now I'm more into the little black bound notebooks. 

When I write on the last page of a journal, I get both really excited and a little sentimental over it. I'm excited to get a new one, especially since by the end my journals are usually a little beat up. I'm also really excited to go back and read through the pages and sort of track where life has led me from the beginning to the end. Of course, that's also the sentimental part of it all.

Here's a breakdown of how this process works for me. 

First, I go to page one. I started the latest journal in September 2011, just after me and Joseph started dating and I ended the journal doing the same thing I was at the end of 2011: Counting my blessings!

I found a page soon after the beginning where I was questioning if I was in love with Joseph. Spoiler: I was!

Who doesn't reflect on truth every now and then?

I had a good, old fashioned quarter life crisis. Anyone else gone through one of these? 

I use my journals for more than just reflections, though. Things like blog brainstorming (Oh yeah, I started working as a professional blogger in the span of this journal!). 

And sometimes I even use my journal to write my fiction stories in, but usually only when the computer's not available. It's just quicker. 

So here I am, at the end of a journal and the beginning of the next. Can't wait to see what this journal will bring! 

Any other journalers out there? Any sentiment for when you end and begin a new one?

—Holli Anne