Week 2: Feelings and Writing

I very much enjoy writing my own thoughts down, whether in a physical notebook or in a note on my phone. Perhaps because I am a very quiet person, and my personal feelings are often not given physical form through speaking. If I do not write them down, they will simply be an intangible mass that frustrates me as I cannot fully comprehend it. By putting it into words my feelings will take a shape that makes sense to me, and thus allows me to fully process it. There are also somewhat more pragmatic reasons. For one, so my feelings will not be forgotten. In five years I will no longer remember what I thought at that certain moment, or at least only in vague terms. A journal is also a chronicle, and a physical embodiment of my emotions.

In many ways, I write with the desire for my feelings to be acknowledged by another person, despite the fact I that I could be writing my deepest darkest fears. I long for someone to say they emphasize with how I feel, that it's not wrong to feel this way. Therefore I think that sharing one's thoughts online, behind the shroud of anonymity, can be a cathartic experience, an easy way to communicate with like minded people. So long as one's objection in writing remains as a means to express oneself, and not to garners followers or popularity, I do not think true voice is something that would be lost.

Journals are compelling reads because they offer something that is normally impossible in real life: a glimpse into someone else's mind. Not an assumption, or a guess or a deduction, but the truth into their thoughts and emotions. They want to know if other people think the same as them, if they really are singular in their mindset. Otherwise it will remain an enigma that they will never truly know.

Everyone has their own writing style, but if the aim is simply to put emotions to pen then I feel most would write in a stream of consciousness. It is possible for writers to learn from their entries as it gives them something physical to reflect on. Instead of the invisible feeling of anger, they can reflect on the sentence "I hated it when they did that". Their emotions can take on shapes that surprise even them as they write it down. Things such as grammar should be a secondary concern, though if they are writing for an online audience perhaps some care towards basic grammar should be adhered to.