The journal β courtesy of the Harvard Journal Project β is black with an elastic band and ribbon bookmark, features a textured Veritas Shield on the front, and smells like fresh newsprint on a winter morning. Such journals were distributed, either in on-campus mailboxes or by national or international mail, to all 1, freshmen who enrolled this year.
An overarching theme of life, especially at the intersection of college life and pandemic life, is the irrefutable presence of uncertainty. Everybody worries and wonders, and nobody knows. By no means do I have the answers to any of these questions β I am in fact the second-most indecisive person I know β but I am able to collude with and confront them in my now-daily journals.
Take an excerpt from my entry from Oct. Or Oct. Or Nov. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Within our journals, we can live those questions. Or at the very least, we can parse their clauses. Journaling serves the twofold purpose of memory-catalyzing and life-analyzing. In terms of remembrance, writing down my experiences amplifies them. When I return to my dorm, I replay conversations from walks along the Charles and reconsider philosophical debates about personal turning points or social media motivations or faith in altruism.
In terms of introspection, journaling allows me to do all the ruminating and intellectualizing that daily life often brushes aside. Together, this twofold process of remembering and analyzing has helped me crystallize personal discussions and value systems. The Harvard Journal Project affirms that work. The Journal Project began as an opt-in program two years ago. Freshmen were encouraged to select red or black journals at the Student Involvement Fair, with opportunities to share their thoughts if desired with other students, Dean of Student Life Katherine G.
