The Evolution of My Journal CW#1

When I started the trip, I was highly skeptical of the whole concept of journaling. I had some preconceived stereotypes about it; most prominent among them was that journals (a synonym for ‘diaries’) were used by girls to write down their feelings. My upbringing in an Asian-American family, where expressing emotions openly is generally discouraged, possibly played a key role in promoting this stereotype. I just wasn’t comfortable sharing my thoughts publicly; even though journals are really meant to be seen by the writer only, it still felt like I was airing out my dirty laundry for everyone to read. Because I thought so little of journaling, I initially didn’t want to put very much effort or money into it. So when we were all asked to go out and purchase a notebook, the first thought that came to mind was, “Why should I get one of those expensive journals? It’s just a stack of bound paper anyways… I probably won’t even use this when I get home.”

This same sort of attitude continued into some of my first entries of my journal, which were simply short, meaningless observations. Reading over them now, I realize that they really add nothing to my experience here; I simply wrote for the sake of writing:

“Italian class was difficult to understand.”

“First time on a train, doesn’t seem much different than a plane.”

These statements couldn’t even be called observations, because they offered no detail or imagery. After reading them, I didn't have any better sense of where I had been and the experiences I had there. I could have written these things down in Seattle; there was nothing uniquely Roman about them.

As I took the time to muddle through the first few pages, however, the evolution of my entries became clear. Slowly and naturally, as I wrote more, the better it became. While Shawn gave us a few things to keep in mind, the transformation that occurred in my journal took little effort on my part; it was a byproduct of continuous writing. Over time, my entries began to include more adjectives, beyond the generic, ‘beautiful,’ and ‘amazing.’ My writing gradually became more descriptive as I began making connections to other things, and started drawing heavily on the use of senses other than sight to bring the reader into my experiences.

“I shot up this morning as the perfect storm of noises congregated beneath my open window. Glass beer bottles shattered upon impact as, what sounded like 20 garbage-men stood outside shouting in their deep voices. Meanwhile, a Vespa, whirring like a giant mosquito, flew past at the exact same time as a low-rumbling Mack truck drove by.”

Every time I read over this entry, I feel like I’m there again that morning, being woken up at 6 am to the ‘perfect storm of noise.’ The transformation of my journal from a list of uninspired facts into snapshots of my time here in Rome has been truly surprising. At the beginning of the program, journaling was a chore which was required to get a good grade in Creative Writing. But as I look over the evolution of my journal, I recognize that writing down my thoughts and observations and being able to articulate them is one of the most meaningful things I’ve accomplished while in Rome. Photographs capture the same image for everyone, but being able to reconstruct my experiences with my own words has helped make this trip more memorable. When I go home next week, people will ask me, “How was Rome?” and instead of saying, “Rome was fun,” I'll be able to use stories from my journal to better illustrate the experiences I had here.