Words to the Wise...

I was thinking about it today, and I felt like I could use a little bit of my Saturday-afternoon-stuck-inside-trying-to-write-Psychology-paper wisdom. : ) I urge you, at some point in your life, to keep a journal. A real, legit journal where you write in it at least every other day. Even if it starts out just containing what happened for the day, give it the chance to contain real emotions and revelations. Looking back at my journal now, even old emails, I love seeing what has changed, who I've become. I've read my Xanga from my 7th grade days, and I laughed at remembering what I had written about and my diction. I thought I was so cool. : ) Then reading emails that I had sent to Tori in my freshman days, I can see how I grew up in those two years, but it still sounds a little bit like a different Lissa writing. Now, I look at even my journal from August, and the change is obviously apparent. I can follow the days. When there is any doubt as to how something occurred, I can just check the journal or read it for simple enjoyment. : ) My current journal has reached a whopping 137 page total, typed, single-spaced, including a 20 page excerpt in my written journal when I can't get to my computer. It is truly amazing to see, I also have my journal here for the past 3 years that I have just written in during times when I needed to think something through and paper was the best way. I can also see the journal entries I have written and point out all my German mistakes, that is amazing. : ) That leads me to a new piece of wisdom from my-Spanish-for-four-years-and-currently-attempting-fluency-in-German-self: talking to yourself sometimes isn't a bad thing. I remember specifically after our first group CBYX phone conference, after hearing about language camp, and thinking how I was expected to learn an entire language in a matter of weeks, and I had been learning Spanish for four years and didn't feel anywhere close to fluent. I then mowed the lawn and had an entire conversation with myself in Spanish. Dorky, I know, but I realized how much Spanish I really knew. I could say exactly what I wanted. Now, I do that with German and imagine situations. Quite helpful, then when I don't know a word that I wanted to use, myself doesn't mind and isn't embarrassed in very quickly pulling out the dictionary and checking. : )

Well back to writing in English about Psych!