Write It Down

I love blogging. It has replaced the journals I used to write in, but I don’t mind. I would rather type than write anyway.

Back in March of 1991, I enlisted in the Army for two years. I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for eight weeks of basic training, and then to Fort Sam Houston for ten weeks of advanced training as a Medical Specialist, otherwise known as a 91B in MOS parlance.

My first tour of duty was a year with the Second Infantry Division in South Korea. I was stationed at Camp Stanton, which was an Air Defense Artillery unit about five miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a neutral zone between North and South Korea.

I had to do something to pass the time, so I bought myself a Brother Electronic Typewriter/Computer, I signed up for a correspondence course through the Writer’s Digest magazine and I started reading and writing. I wanted to become a writer, so with time on my hands, I started writing.

I wrote all kinds of things: short stories, articles and my diary. This was the first time I began writing about my life via keyboard and computer.  I put away the ballpoint pens and pencils and notebooks with which I filled a box or two, and I dedicated myself to becoming a better writer via my faithful Brother.

My Brother typewriter is gone now and sadly I can’t read those old floppies anymore. And that is one reason why the “old-fashioned” writing instruments like the pen and paper will never go away. If kept in a cool dry location, notebooks will last for a very long time and they will most likely always be readable. Well, maybe.

Choose Your Writing Instrument

Do you write or journal sometime during the week? I have been journaling off and on since I was seventeen years old. I began journaling as kind of a prayer journal / diary. I would write out a list of who I am praying for to keep them fresh in my mind. I would also write down verses of scripture from the Bible that I was memorizing. It always helped to write it down.

I would use a school notebook with narrow ruling. I loved that narrow ruling. I liked my writing better smaller, and that just helped me guide the letters and words to a smaller degree. I also used pens rather pencils. Ink rather than graphite was much more permanent.

And this, I guess, is the 21st century version of the journal. I really do enjoy typing more than anything. It is crisp, clear, easily readable and it will live on until the Lord returns.

I would love to scan in my old journals and put them online sometime. It would ensure I don’t lose all that stuff I wrote back in the 1980s. Those journals are twenty years old. They are degrading fast.

If you don’t journal in some way, whether it is online or offline, start it up. Get those thoughts flowing.