Travel Journal

“The weather is here, wish you were beautiful.”

I recently returned from an almost-two-week trip to California to visit my brother and his family. Before I left, I began a travel journal, to be completed upon my return.

This was a basic type of journal, using a small three-ring binder I had purchased at Michaels several months ago; it was intended to be a travel “smash book” of sorts, although I took out all of its pages and replaced them with my own. I also decided to use some page protectors from the “Project Life” collection.

There wasn’t much I could do ahead of time, since most of the contents would be photos and miscellany collected on my trip. As I was driving north to where I would leave my car, I thought about this project, specifically why people create travel journals and what purpose they serve. I came to the conclusion that there were two main reasons:  to remember the trip, and to share the memories with others. For me, it would be to enjoy making the book itself.

While I was gone I gathered bits and pieces and took photos (almost 400 just in one day at the San Francisco Zoo). Upon my return, as I was driving back from where I had left my car, I again thought about the purpose of a travel journal. And again, I came to the conclusion that for me personally, I would make it for the joy and relaxation of making something. But was that really enough? I could include photos and ephemera, and journal about my time, but who would read it?

The more I think about this project, the more my thoughts wander to the family I hope to one day have – a husband, children – and what I would like to share with them about my life and how I see the world. I haven’t started the journal process yet, and I’m not yet sure what I will say. But somehow having this idea about my future, that I will one day (hopefully soon) have a family of my own to share these thoughts and photos with, fills me with a quiet hope. I like that, very much!