Memories of Journals

This week we have a guest blog from Stephanie L. Watson about her personal experience with journaling.

Memories of Journals
I have always been attracted to journaling. I kept journals long before I knew what it was, or why I was doing it. I was drawn to put my thoughts and actions to paper, and then at some point to put them in digital format.
Before I had a computer I kept a journal of my entire pregnancy with my oldest daughter, Becca. I wrote every single day, a diary of happenings, and then I expressed thoughts and feelings in between. The journal was lost in a move.
My husband was in the military and we lost an entire box of my journals among other things. I often wonder where they are. Sometimes I feel sad that I can't read them to my daughter but strangely happy that someone else might be enjoying them. I don't allow myself to think of what else could have happened to them.
My memories of the journal are much more accurate than my memories of parts of my life when I did not keep a journal. Even though I do not have the blue notebook to view, I can remember writing the words, and the feelings the words evoked. I was a very happy, fat and satisfied pregnant woman. I was only 19, yet I had been married two years, and this was a planned pregnancy. I think I was the only person happy about it.
I'm glad that I kept the journal because the love I had for my baby was so strong and overflowed through my fingers and onto the page so easily that it taught me joy in writing. A joy that I still have today. Had I not learned that excitement I would never have finally, in my 30's gone back to college, and in my 40's attend graduate school.
Journaling also helped me deal with my feelings and the sad issues in my life. I was in a bad marriage but was not yet accepting that it was bad. Writing it all down made me see the truth for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be. It also made me realize I did not want my daughter growing up that way.
Journaling essentially saved me.

Author info:
Stephanie L. Watson is a Virtual Assistant, a Wife and Mom of four daughters who lives, loves and laughs in Huntsville, Alabama. You can learn more about her at Virtual Assistant Moms http://www.virtualassistantmoms.com/