This one time, at band camp...

By Stephanie Pretorius

So when I first received this assignment, I struggled for a while to think of something I had never done before and that would be a good conclusion to my blogging experience. I thought about outward expressions or rather exhibitions that would intrigue or wow people and turn heads on campus but neither dressing up in my hippie-ist gear and attending an accounting lecture or remaining silent for hours and end grabbed my attention. Finally after much thought and cups of tea I decided that I’d carry on “blogging” just this time in a journal.

I have always loved to read and write. I think I began reading at the age of five and soon there was nothing else I would rather do. Writing was harder at first but I had stories pent up inside and even before I could write I would dictate them to my father as I did the illustrations. However, even after such an extensive love affair with words I had never kept a diary or what I now prefer to refer to as a journal. My stories always had a very personal face to them but they were on show and therefore I edited them heavily and kept my guard up at all times.

So, I made myself a cup of tea one afternoon early this week and then headed off with my brand-spanking-new moleskin notebook. “The legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries” – see I wanted to make sure I took myself seriously. I started writing in much the same manner as I had began my first blog post, I outlined what I wanted to write about without actually saying anything. However, as I carried on writing both that afternoon and in the following days I began to slowly write for me; I began to write without thinking about what I was writing and how others might interpret or judge what I was saying.

While I have loved blogging and I think it is an incredibly useful journalistic tool which needs to be utilised by both students and professionals, I took a look at a couple of very personal blogs that one could say are similar or perform the same function as my little black notebook and while it was interesting to see into the mind of another person I was struck b the fact that it is still written for an audience. This term I have read and written what I like for a purpose dictated by another. I have missed out on reading and writing for myself but this exercise is in the process of helping me regain the ability to force aside time were I really read and write what I like.