In 2017, a friend working at Farrar, Straus and Giroux posited some questions about journal keeping. The following was one of them, and here was my response.
How has journal-writing changed you? Is it or has it become an important part of your identity? How do you feel your identity has informed and shaped your journal-writing? (You can consider your “identity” however you like, but feel free to consider specific categories such as your gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, faith, ability, mental health, geography, profession, educational background, family structure, etc.)
v Hmm. Tough to say if journaling has “changed” me. I have kept journals for so long I’m not certain what or how it has contributed to my personality.
v
The
Journal IS a part of my
identity in that if I go somewhere without either a journal or camera people
will ask where the journal is, and why do I not have it with me.
v
My
“identity” fits into many categories. I have written on or entered materials
related to, many different subjects including:
v
All of
the above and, I am certain, other subjects, contribute in the shaping of my
content, writing, thoughts and journal entries