If you are preparing to go on a travel adventure, you may be keen to keep a journal. It’s a great way to capture your experiences. It is easy to keep up to date for the first week or two and your motivation is high. However despite your best intentions the trip takes on a life of its own and the journal sinks further and further down into the depths of your rucksack. You start to miss a few days and then the task seems more and more onerous. You begin to feel stressed. You need to catch up! So you quickly write a fairly boring account of where you went, what you saw and what you ate or you just don’t bother. Much later, when the adventure is over, you wish you’d had the willpower to finish the journal or take the time to make it more interesting. I came across an alternative approach by accident.
My life-long, best friend, Mary, gave me a wonderful notebook to take to Uganda to record all the quirky parts of the adventure. “I’m Not Here Right Now” is the title on the front cover. Lots of friends and family also wrote messages, challenges and instructions at the top of each page. My job was to record the interesting bits – the anecdotes, conversations, interesting sights, challenges, street posters – anything really that was funny or sad or interesting – linked to the quotes. It was so easy to do and didn’t have to be either coherent or in chronological order. I kept a journal too – it was part of the trip’s requirement. But when I look back at my Uganda memories, it is always this notebook that I reach for. It was also incredibly useful while I was there. When I had a tough day, felt out of my depth or just plain homesick – reading all the messages, challenges and best wishes of those who mattered most to me, always cheered me up. It was one of my most precious possessions and still is.
I’m Not Here Right Now
So as you are preparing to go on your own adventure – consider an alternative approach to keeping a journal.
0 Comments