Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a lovely morning/afternoon/evening! Ever since I was in fifth or sixth grade, I’ve been writing. In fact, I first began writing ‘books’ at that age. Today, we’re not going to be looking at the longer stories I wrote, but rather three journal writings I wrote during my middle school literature classes. I still have my journal from back in 2015. It has all my journal writings from the beginning of seventh grade. Just as a little background: I was a lonely, imaginative kid, so be prepared for lots of fantasy, world-traveling, and magical animals. This should be fun.

1 || Animals

This is the first writing in my journal. It’s dated December 10th, 2015. I got the teacher’s “Terrific” stamp on it, so it must be good, right?

"If I could communicate with animals, I would become friends with them, ask them to help me build a treehouse by them, and keep them as pets. I would befriend them because then I would have animal friends I can play with, and they could defend me if I was in any trouble. I would ask them to help me build a treehouse because then I could live by them, and I would not have to travel that far. I would make them my pets so I could play with them and live with them. That is what I would do if I could talk to animals."

Yeah, you see how I was a lonely kid? I was ready to befriend animals and live with them. Speaking of which, I love how I had no thoughts about food, water, or any of the sort. I was ready to become Mowgli or Tarzan in my little treehouse. Maybe this is why Barbie as The Island Princess is my favorite Barbie movie…

2 || Fasinations [sic]

This writing is dated January 1st, 2016. It’s not long after the previous one, and I even wrote how many words I wrote before the time ran out—seventy-one in probably about five or ten minutes.

PS I put a double slash (//) where the time ran out.

"One thing that always fascinates me is Narnia. I love fantasy, and I have a big imagination, so sometimes I go to Narnia. What fascinates me is the magical creatures, the beauty of Narnia, and the adventures you can have. I love magical creatures like Unicorns and Griffins, and they are both in Narnia. Narnia is also very beautiful because all the different landscapes and places like the Dancing lawns. I // have many adventures in my own Narnia."

I love and miss how I saw the world as a magical place and believed in my own Narnia when I was younger. However, it’s bittersweet. I really just pretended to go to Narnia because I had no friends or inclination to do anything else elsewhere. I strive to be as positive and magic-minded as younger me.

3 || 4 Words

Every now and then, my teacher would let us, students, pick four words to create a story. I always somehow put a fantasy twist into it—surprise surprise. The four words in this story (from January 26th, 2016) are snow leopard, Nile River, zombies, and school.

"Once upon a time, there was a magical snow leopard name Magicae. She was walking along the Nile River when she a graffite [sic] of zombies on a school building. She paid no attention to it and kept walking. She soon arrived at her house and went to sleep. Then [sic] next morning, Magicae went to one of her friends // houses [sic].

There are a little too many “[sic]” insertions in this bit. Every good writer has to start somewhere, y’know? Anyway, in many of my “4 words” journal writings, I’ve noticed that I would include the four words as quickly as possible and then continue writing my own story with free will. I was pretty clever when I was younger, I suppose.

That concludes the little look at my old writings. Now, I’ve got plenty more (almost an entire journal full), but I don’t want to bore you all or give you second-hand embarrassment from everything I’ve written. I think I’ll continue doing this; it’s pretty fun to reflect and look back at how I’ve improved. If you have any old writings, I encourage you to look back and sift through them. Yeah, it’ll be hard, especially if some are reeaalllyyy embarrassing, but it’s fun to see the change. Anyway, without further ado, I hope you all have a lovely rest of your week. Keep on inspiring folks and loving yourself.