I’ve always suggested to friends they keep a journal to chronicle important times in their lives.
I wish I’d started keeping one on a regular basis during my college years and early twenties when I experienced so many important firsts.
My first love and heartbreak, my first taste of alcohol (Mad Dog 20/20), the fall of the Berlin Wall, the joy of Mandela being released from prison, the first Iraq war, Chicago Bulls winning their first NBA championship, ushering in the New Jack Swing era, my father’s passing, editing the student newspaper, dropping Statistics three times, Magic Johnson’s HIV announcement and how the AIDS crisis impacted us, the Rodney King beating, the LA, Bensonhurst and Crown Heights riots, the relevance of DEF Comedy/Poetry Jam, the first attack on the World Trade Center, voting in my first U.S. political elections, graduating from college, turning 21, getting my first car, Freaknik ‘94, the Rwandan genocide, moving away from NYC and having my first real job and apartment, Pac and Biggie’s murders, getting engaged/married/divorced.
I marvel that all of those things (and more) happened within a 10-year span.
I remember most of the events broadly, but I wish that I had more specifics about how I felt or what I was doing as all of these things unfolded.
Now, I’ve been consistently keeping a journal for at least the past 10 years. From the mundane to the major, what the weather was like, the number one song/movie, professional accomplishments and challenges, going through menopause, supporting an aging parent, climate change, inflation, etc… I don’t know if anyone will ever see them, but somewhere there’ll be a record from a middle-aged woman in NYC of these chaotic times on this spinning rock third from the sun.
And because we are living in the most interesting of times, I’m filling up dozens of pages on a daily/weekly basis.
It’s been important for me to keep a journal because I am sometimes able to chart my personal growth and development, I can track history in real time (one thing is for sure and two things are for certain… it repeats!).
Additionally, personal narrative is an important supplement or counter to textbook history because as the famous African proverb says, “until the lions tell their stories, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
So for those times when you start to wonder… how did we get here, when your memory starts to fade, for when your kids and grandkids wonder what you did during this extraordinary period in time… get some paper and a pen and get to writing.
- Number one movie: Inside Out 2.
- Kendrick Lamar releases video for Not Like Us; 30 million views in two days.
- 87 octane gas in Nassau County, NY: $3.25 per gallon.
- Hurricane Beryl earliest, strongest hurricane recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.
- The U.S. Supreme Court decided presidential actions are immune from criminal prosecution. In response, Justice Sotomayor wrote, “…with fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
- Keir Starmer became the new British Prime Minister and the Labour Party wins in a landslide.
- The Yankees are second in the American League East and the Mets are third in the National League East.
Kimfinite Possibilities 