2400 journal entries later

Yes, it’s worth it, but I have one question.

I wrote my very first journal entry on January 22, 2007. At the time I was living in an apartment with three other guys, horrified by the thought of anyone finding the grey notebook where I’d gingerly written down my most personal thoughts. That first entry was as classic as they come. I wrote about my girlfriend. How I struggled with my studies. That I’d just started kickboxing, and what I had for dinner (tagliatelle). Little did I know that this journal entry would bring a tear to my eye years later.
If you’re looking for tips or tricks for keeping up a journal, then I’m sorry. Only thing I can add is to not take it too seriously, and that a few words are better than none. I know, revolutionary.

My journal collection is no longer a bunch of grey notebooks. I’ve gone digital. And yes I’ll admit, it’s less personal. But I love the flexibility, I love how easy it is add photos, screenshots, and even geotags. The app I use is Day One. It’s 385 NOK a year, 35 dollars. A luxury, but well worth it. There is no shortage of journal apps out there, some of them may be even better. But this one has everything I need. More importantly, I’ve spent a lot of time entering all my old handwritten entries into the app. I don’t want to do that again.

Maybe the best thing about having a digital journal is how easy it is to find entries from the same day in earlier years.

(These aren’t the actual journal entries. More on that later)

November 10, 2017
I went skydiving for the first time. Not tandem, alone. I realise now that it was kinda crazy, but it was how the skydiving club did their beginner courses. First, we learned how to position our bodies when in the air, how to deploy the secondary parachute if the first one failed, and the theory of how to steer. We did this for a couple of hours, then it was up in a tiny plane that sounded like it would fall apart any second. When we got in position they opened the door and connected a rope to my parachute that would automatically open when pulled. I got instructed to climb out on the bottom of the wing and hang from it. A smile was the key to get a thumbs up from the instructor, signaling that I could let go of the plane. I smiled, thumbs up. Let go. I only fell for a few second. The real challenge was to steer the parachute to the X in the field hundreds of meters below, and not hitting a power-line. Or a tree. Or anything else. Somehow no one in our beginner course did.

November 10, 2011
I was in my second year of film school, building a set for a short film I’d written. The film turned out really bad, but making it was fun.

November 10, 2013
I was living in Cape Town for the last year of my bachelor. I would end up writing and directing two more bad movies, but on this day we went wine tasting on a farm outside the city.

November 10, 2018
I replaced the license plate holder on my bike with a smaller one mainly to make it look cooler, secondly to make the bike lighter and more suited for driving off-road. I switched back a couple of months later. Every time I drove in the rain, my back got drenched in asphalt mud that is really hard to wash off.

November 10, 2023
I considered buying a typewriter. Still do.

November 10, 2024
I woke up with a headache. A walk in the misting rain cleared it up. Before writing the journal entry for the day I read what I’d done on the same days in earlier years and realised 10. November has been an awesome day for me. I wondered why I never did start that blog and decided to do something about it.

What now?

2400 journal entries. For my eyes only. Forever? I love to get high on my own supply, and from time to time I share old memories with friends. I love that, but I don’t want anyone to see my journal. It’s way too personal. However, the journal dying with me feels like a waste. I’ve considered printing the journal once a year and hide it in the apartment. Have it there for someone to find when I leave this plane. I wonder, will anyone even bother reading it when they find it? Should they? Is this the start of a grand existential crisis? I’ll tackle that later. For now, I guess welcome to my public journal. I think they used to call it a blog back in the early 2000s. When they were popular.

Well, better late than never.