List night I had an occurrence of deja vu. My roommate wrote inside my journal while we joked about my obsession with sushi, they wrote about how I only need sushi as bribery! During our moments of laughter, I suddenly remembered a time from elementary school, when another friend of mine had written in my very first journal as well. These are the only two times in my life that others have written in my journals.

I thought about how, till this day, I still have my friend’s writing in my old journal. Just like hers, my roommate’s writing in my journal will serve as a forever memory too. Growing up, I was lucky to have had many people in my life who taught me the importance of writing in order to voice myself, reflect, or even simple connect with others and retain memories.

For example, my parents taught me that mental health is just as important as physical health. They’ve been my biggest role models in understanding different ways of healing, learning, and growing. Not only did my parents have a part in this, so did my teachers in school.

Many studies show that self-reflective practices such as journaling, meditating, and therapy drastically improve our communication, mental health, and ability to function overall. But despite the general public knowing the benefits, not many are able to consistently perform these and see the actual long-term results. As an advocate for journaling, I often get the response that journaling is “too time consuming/too difficult/too much work.”

Studies also support that learning skills and habits from a young age are easier than learning them when older. This isn’t to say that starting a new habit/hobby when you’re older won’t work, but think about values and lessons you’ve had growing up versus ones that you’ve developed as an adult. The ones from when you’re younger are usually more instilled within you.

I know that, personally, I probably wouldn’t be an avid journaler if I didn’t practice it as a child. This is exactly why I believe that young students should also have the chance to journal in schools.

Thus, I’m super excited to announce that SASS has partnered with multiple school districts in order to work on a curriculum that has journaling as a part of literature classes in elementary schools! It’s a little in the air right now, so I’m not exactly sure what will specifically be enforced. But I can say that I’m doing as much research as I possibly can in order to make sure students can get the most benefit from this as possible. I’ve been working closely with educators who are just as passionate about journaling as I am, and I’ll definitely write some more about the process as the project continues forward. But for now, I’m grateful to be able to share my passion with schools. 🙂

Till next time,

Moesha.