Have you ever returned from a trip and realized, upon recounting your adventures, the specifics escape you? Maybe you’ve had friends plan a trip to a destination you’ve visited. They ask for recommendations but you can’t remember restaurant names or tour operators. Or perhaps you’ve sat down to make a photo album and struggled to generate captions that adequately complement the images.

I think everyone’s been there at one point or another and it’s exceptionally frustrating. You’ve had these adventures, you’ve explored these places, and you want to remember it all. In order to avoid these scenarios, I started keeping daily journals while traveling, particularly abroad. I certainly don’t journal at home, finding my day to day happenings a tad mundane. But as soon as I board a plane, heading to another land and into another culture, I desperately seek to document each and every foreign experiences I have, knowing that while I’ll perhaps always remember the big moments, its often the details that make each trip worthwhile.

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At times it’s challenging to sustain a journal, especially following a late night or early morning. When there’s always something to do or see, writing in my journal is often the last thing on my mind. I certainly don’t always enjoy spending what sometimes amounts to over an hour scribbling in my journal, especially while a roommate gets a better night’s sleep. My eyes definitely start drooping and my hand cramps throughout the process. But, at the end of the day, I know that my journals allow for the preservation of my many travel memories.

Thinking back, I first started documenting my adventures in 1995, at the age of nine. You’d imagine my parents suggested the idea, perhaps even purchasing my first journal. However, if I remember correctly (I can thank my journals for that), I came up with the practice all on my own. Sure, it wasn’t elaborate and definitely focused on things I today would find irrelevant, like the pets I met and feathers I collected. But there’s no way that now, over twenty years later, I’d recall anything from my time in the UK. It might not recount the top hotel or the names of museums. But it accurately captures how I experienced England as a 3rd grader, freezing that time and place forever. 

And that’s the true invaluable aspect of these journals, and what motivates me to continue writing despite a tired hand or restless nature. They bring me fully back in time, to the places I’ve ventured in the past twenty-five years. They allow me to remember the places I spent important months of my life and recreate images of the homes I lived in, the cafes I frequented or the varied activities in which I participated. But beyond that, more than just helping me revisit places, I am brought back to who I was and what was important to me at the time. Even the notebooks themselves, ranging from spiraled to intricately woven, comment on some aspect of my personality. The journals are like a museum of my life, revealing my transformations and reminding me of who I used to be. 

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My Tips for Keeping a Journal:

  • Utilize transportation days: If you can write while on a bus, that’s a great time to work on your entries. I utilize plane rides, particularly if I’ve fallen a few days behind.
  • Take notes throughout the day: Jotting information down on your phone or in a small notebook helps you remember specific names and fun facts. It also lets you write about previous days with more detail.
  • Set aside journaling time: Be purposeful and intentional about this because at the end of the day, this is what’s required to keep a journal. It doesn’t always have to be in the evening but planned writing time is a must. The more days you let pass without an entry, the less likely you are to keep going.
  • Buy a fun journal: Purchase it before you go or, as an added souvenir, once you arrive. The more you like the book itself, the more you’ll likely pick it up!