I’ve become fascinated with journaling my thoughts as I’ve grown older. This started around my freshman year of college when I downloaded an app called Daylio. Daylio is essentially a diary to log your mood and a short synopsis of what you did that day. I did this for about four years out of raw curiosity and I got so much more out of it than I expected. My memory of events improved, and I had tangible evidence that I tend to log good moods over the long term; something that helped contextualize long moments of sadness, such as the pandemic.
When I started my career at 22, my Daylio logs began drying up. There were too many days with the description “I worked,” and once I lost the streak, there was no mental return I could make. Daylio was deleted from my phone, along with four years of my life.
At 23, I embarked on a new form of journaling - album reviews. I found a website (www.1001albumsgenerator.com) that would generate an album from their bank of 1001 “must-listens”. I listened, reviewed, and posted on a new Instagram account (@zachhasears) for each day of 2023. It was well received and I found much more new music, but the daily grind had turned this passion into a chore, thereby leaving a sour taste in my mouth (ears?) for albums I would have otherwise loved. I fully intended to return to the account one day, but that day has not yet come.
Three years after that, I’ve had a hole in my life for journaling. Every attempt thus far was successful, but they have not stood the test of time. How could I scratch this itch without burning out?
As it turns out, you are reading my solution at this very minute. I have turned to digital journaling (“blogging”) as my way to share my life with you. Posts are not daily, nor should they be. I can post highlights of my life that are more informal than Instagram, and there’s an added benefit that you are only exposed to my journal when you choose to search for it… it’s not being forced upon you via algorithm.
I cannot definitively predict if blogging will work for me long term. I hope it does, as this web domain charges me an annual fee. But in the meantime, thank you for taking a glimpse into my life. You did not have to. As time passes and I experience more things, I hope it reminds you of all the good in your own life. There is more good in there than you give credit for.