“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you-it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your conciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you…hopefully you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain 

I came across this quote a week before I left to go abroad for a semester almost about a year ago. I was sitting in the plane about to take off from Logan International with tears streaming down my face as I faced the Boston skyline. Tears made up of excited, terrified, sad, anxious, and instant homesick emotions. I didn’t know what the next four months had in store but I knew it was an adventure that would last a lifetime. I really wanted to get a personal souvineer to always help me remember the things I saw, the places I traveled, and the memories I made. Yes I could take pictures and videos (and over 10,000 at that), and of course every corner of Florence had every and any souvineer you could think of – shot glasses, patched, figurines, hates, flags – …yeah no. I wanted something more personal, more special and real…
A travel journal was exactly what I needed  to document every moment, feelings, and memories throughout this experience that I’d never have again.

Here are 6 reasons I think everyone should keep a journal while traveling…

1. A souvineer that will forever hold your memories of all your travels.
2. A creative outlet.
3. You’ll be in completely new settings and writing every night before bed is a comforting routine.
4. Gets you off your phone and back to basics.
5. A place to get all of your feelings and thoughts out on paper and be 100% real and true to yourself because unlike a blog or social media, it’s private.
6. Have you ever found something from your grandparents youth that made you feel like you were thrown back in time living an experience with them? This journal could be that one day.

 

I hope you enjoyed and decide to keep a travel journal yourself!

X

~Michaela

 

Check out these journals that people took even further than just writing!