Reflection about Journal, Life Compass, and Multigenre project

These are my outer and inner journeys combined in the covers of my journal.

At the beginning, I though the journal was going to be a difficult task because I’m not one to share a lot of what might be going through my head. I decorated the journal with quotes and pictures that described my inner and outer journeys. These pictures included places I’ve traveled to, quotes about being happy and images that showed what journeys I wanted to have. At first it was hard for me because I did not know how to differentiate first thoughts from diary entries. However, as the days passed, practicing the first thought process became easier and I started to write everything that came to mind. From song lyrics to talking about my period, the journal became a safe spot for me. I talked about a lot of very personal situations that would be happening in my life, about my friends, and about anything that would be going on in my life. The journal really helped me pour out my thoughts and emotions at the moment and feel free when writing. Writing the journal was my favorite part of the entire activity because of how personal it became. The life compass and multigenre projects were part of the journal that also helped me.

The life compass helped me realize how I was feeling. It was divided into four sections; mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional and we would rate them from 3 to 1. I noticed that when a test would be coming, I could see the “mental” side of the compass decreasing in number and then increasing the day after the test. The compass was meant to be done only ten times, yet I decided to do it for every entry because it felt incomplete without it.

The “physical” side of the compass was the one that experienced the most changes because every day was a different route. It would change depending on whether I had allergies, had walked around a lot that day or if I had period pains.

My “emotional” side of the compass really experienced a variety of changes because I never felt the same every day. Usually I would be a two but if a situation would be happening it could affect my mood through days.

For my “spiritual” side of the compass was more difficult than the others. I’m not a religious person so I couldn’t relate it to that. Spiritually I always felt calmed because there was never something that made me felt uncomfortable. My “spiritual” side of the compass was the most stable and uninterrupted side because it never changed.  I always felt secure and calmed so my side was always on a three. Overall, the life compass really helped me have a sense of knowledge about how I’m feeling. It’s very interesting seeing the numbers on each entry, reading the key word written and think about what I was feeling during that day.

The multigenre section of the journal was very fun to make. It felt as if it could be the easiest of the three main projects and it was a nice way to take out my creative side. This section of my journals was mostly filled with collages and comic strips. I’ve never been good at drawing, so the comic section was funny because of the drawings themselves. My favorite work of the multigenre section was the Identity collage we had to do because I was able to show pictures of myself when I was younger and fill the collage with quotes that I really enjoyed. Overall, the journal was a fun project that helped me discover how I was feeling and I can’t wait to be able to look back at the journal and remember where I was and what I was going through during this semester.