Browse Exhibits (5 total)

     When your life gets chaotic the easiest thing you can do is sit down and write it out. Having everything up in the air stressing you out is the quickest way to get lost in it all. A more effective way would be to clearly state what you have going on and jot down ways to fix it. This will help towards the solution or end goal you are aiming for. Writing out your day, to-do lists, and even writing to someone are all ways we can better our lives through one simple task. 

This exhibit seeks to understand and explore the multiple uses that journaling can provide for opportunities of everyday writing. These uses will be divided into two distinct categories: the public side of journaling, and the private side of journaling. Both categories will include references to journal entries from multiple parties in order to effectively gain insight into the overall experience of writing in a journal.

Journaling is a different experience for everyone. For some, it can be a stress reliever after a hard day. For others, it can be a physical reminder of certain periods of time in their life. Above all, journaling is a form of everyday writing. In “Notebooks, Annotations, and Tweets: Defining Everyday Writing through a Common Lens,” Yancy explains, “Such writing is both ubiquitous and, as Jamie White-Farnham explains in a recent College English essay, outside of “the common purview” (209): commonplace in daily life, and yet not fully recognized as a legitimate area of study,” (7). These journals are not being published or graded. While some may journal to share with others, there is no professional or academic interest taking place. There is only the person’s thoughts, a pen/pencil, and paper.

An important note to consider is how each journal entry is physically written down on paper with either a pen or pencil. We are living in a digital age, which makes it interesting to see how many people refuse to take up digital journaling, instead preferring the aforementioned tools for this activity. In “Why Technology Matters to Writing: A Cyberwriter’s Tale,” Jim Porter gives one possible explanation of the decision to write with a pencil, “The pencil matters not because of the composition of the lead or the quality of the graphite, but because of the lack of eraser and the training that accompanied the use of that eraserless pencil. It is not the pencil per se that is important, but rather the pencil in its social and ideological context” (384). In a digital space, it is much easier to erase what you’ve written. One of the biggest purposes of journaling is getting thoughts onto the page without erasing them. This makes using a pen or pencil and paper more efficient when partaking in this task.

With the motivation to journal and the necessary tools to start, there is only one question left to be answered: who are we journaling for?

A wooden "case" of sorts was found in my grandmother's home shortly after she passed away in 2014. Armed with no knowledge about the ancestor, an attempt is now made at reconstructing the life of John Briayne Arthur Hostage through the pieces of writing he left behind.