Post Project Reflection
Journaling While Abroad
This project has certainly been a labor of love. In creating it, I made one particularly close and surprising relationship while abroad: my writing and the journal itself. Its little exaggeration to say this little pink book went with me everywhere: on the tube, while traveling, tucked into my nightstand or in the front pocket of my purse. To be honest, its quiet miraculous that I didn't loose the thing, or at the very least spill a drink on it throughout the four months.
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Keeping a journal, though, changed my experience in the end, beyond the reflective nature that I had expected.
By having the expectation of recording my days, I was encouraged to be more adventurous and active than I possibly might have been otherwise. I felt disappointed when a sequence of days past with nothing of note for me to record. When I was sick during my second week in the country, I felt the loss of time keenly.
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The flip side of this, though, was that when I did have a particularly busy day or week, I was excited to jot down my experience and note down new places I had discovered to explore. I wanted to have something to write down, and so actively sought out those experiences. At times I believe I lived more in the moment as well, acutely taking in the scenery and those around me with the plan to remember and record them later. I became a journalist of my own life.
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An unexpected 'pro' (as opposed to 'con') to always having my journal on me, especially when traveling by myself, was there was always 'someone' I could talk to about the day. As I said before, I developed a companionship with my reflections. While I did take a number of trips with friends over the course of the semester, a good deal of times I set out on my own. During those occurrences, while I appreciated the independence and freshness of traveling solo, I did feel the absence of someone to share it with. Without thinking about it, I turned to my journal to fill that role (and now that I think about it, am surprised I did not personify it at all with a name or direct addresses of "Dear Diary" during my travels). Sitting in a restaurant or trying a new whiskey at a pub, I rarely felt awkward sitting by myself. Though I suppose I could have used the time to venture into conversation with the locals or fellow tourists (which I did do a few times), on the whole (perhaps as a woman traveling on her own) I felt more comfortable generally keeping to myself. With my notebook, I always had a companion with me and something to occupy myself with. Though naturally the conversation was one-sided, in a non-linear way I was still able to reflect on my day with someone else: my future self. In my entries I specifically wrote down those details that I thought would elude me later: The obscure band my tour guide mentioned, the hidden pub I found for dinner that night, almost missing my bus and being thankful to get on. The big things I knew I would remember and fondly look back on (though I recorded them all the same), but I knew it was the seemingly unimportant details that would transcend me, months or years later, back to that moment.
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In the months following my experience abroad, I compiled my entries and accompanying work into this website. Recording the experiences and my thoughts of them after the fact, I found myself in the unique position to add information gained subsequently to the entry. This meant answering questions I posed myself, creating an infrequent dialogue that broke the chronologically linear narration. I realize, though, that this format cannot be overused, or else I would run the risk of distancing my reader from the narrative. However, through its sparring use, I endeavored to balance an "in the moment" narrative with additional reflective notes and create a personal, informal presentation for the reader.
Creating the digital collection, revisiting my pictures and videos so soon after returning home, my experience away still feels fresh. Even when back in my American Colonies, I have been reliving my days abroad. I am looking forward to reviewing my time away after a period of separation, observing if the process of journalling has made me retain more memories, or perhaps whether the details I wrote down will reawaken forgotten moments.
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To learn more about this project and its goal, please click below:
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