by Kelly Henry

Created on: February 16, 2010

While volunteering in Russia, I found that keeping a personal journal was one of my greatest refuges.  While I had a very exciting and positive experience, I also faced many challenges and needed a private place where I could reflect on what was going on without the fear of being judged.  Culture shock, exhaustion and other frustrations were easier to cope with when I had a place to vent about them.  If I had only kept a blog, I would have felt limited as to what I could say and how I could say it.  I wanted to share my experiences with my loved ones at home, but at the same time, I felt that a journal would be more valuable to me during my trip.  Plus, I now have a copy of my story close at hand.  I can go back and remember both the adventures and the lessons that I learned whenever I find myself yearning for what was.

Blogs can be useful in keeping family and friends at home up to date on your travels, but written journals are both more easily accessible and less limiting.  You may not always have easy internet access during your trip, while at the same time feeling the need to jot things down before you forget the details or lose your creative energy.  Hand-written journals are accessible anywhere you take your bag or backpack, from the plane, to the train, to your hotel room, to your outing to the park or the beach.  Journals are also a useful place to keep other information, such as itineraries and phone numbers.  I used the inside cover of my journal to keep track of how much money was in my checking account. 

Hand-written journals can also serve as scrapbooks.  This is an easy way to collect ticket stubs, programs, and other small souvenirs without losing them later on.  During my trip, I kept a glue stick on hand so that I could stick these items directly into my journal while writing about the memories they evoked.  Doing this gives your journal some visual imagery to accompany your writing as well as add to the overall quality of your journal as a souvenir to cherish for years to come. 

Keeping a hand-written journal does not necessarily preclude you from keeping a blog as well.  You might chose to use your journal as a private space, while using your blog to keep in touch with family and friends and let them know what you’re up to.  You could also write the blog after your trip, copying directly from your journal, while editing out parts that you do not wish others to read. 

The benefits of a hand-written journal while traveling are clear; they are easily accessible, provide a private space for reflection and frustrations, and can serve many other purposes outside of being just a journal.  Your travel journal can become a souvenir that will bring back many happy memories of your trip as you go back and read it later.  Most importantly, a journal allows you to create a deeply personal recollection of your adventure without any fear of judgment or the need to self-sensor.  While travel should be fun and exciting, travel can also help you grow in more personal and meaningful ways, and reflecting on this is one way of making your trip more life-changing. 

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