Bullet Jounral Legacy
Today, bullet journaling is how I document my life. Every morning I sit with my coffee and pens and recount the day before. I track my steps, what I was grateful for, things I accomplished, what I ate, and what rom-coms I’ve recently watched. It gives me a sense of achievement I haven’t felt in a while. I have special writing utensils and washi tape to keep everything fun and exciting. The journal is messy, colorful and, most importantly, brings so much joy.
I started bullet journaling a few years ago, and it didn’t stick. My approach was more polished then. Months had color-coded themes correlating with the seasons; I would write in pencil first to have impeccable handwriting and put too much effort into being perfect. Of course, it wasn’t sustainable.
Today, I’m informal with the entire process. I’m simply focusing on documenting my life… just for me. In the past, I wanted the beautiful image to post online, and I still might post the picture, but it will be whatever came about without any corrections. I want to look back on these and see where I was at in life, authentically.
Someone recently asked me what I would do with them after I die. Who will I leave them to? Who will read these after I’m gone? As a child-free woman, I’m not sure. And to be honest, I’m not sure I care. I’m not thinking about what will happen to my things after I cease to exist. Well, some things I’m taking into consideration, but not everything. Someone might throw my journals in the garbage. And that’s OK. I’ll be dead.
Legacy often comes up when someone finds out I won’t be having kids. Who will remember you when you’re gone? Again, I’m not sure; I’ll be dead. But I’m guessing even those with kids have others outside their children who will remember them. Just because my community doesn't revolve around children doesn’t mean no one will remember me.
I’m not saying people will regard my bullet journals as great work. I’m not expecting others to hold them as sacred as I do. I write in these journals for myself… If someone reads them, great! They will see how I’m trying to incorporate more fiber into my diet and put a star next to it in my food journal. Maybe my weekly cleaning schedule will inspire them to adopt one themselves. The idea is to chronicle my time as a thirty-nine-year-old perimenopausal woman. That’s it.
My favorite pages are a weekly collection of paper bits: receipts, tags, stickers, packaging… any paper I can glue down into a journal. I love the textures of these pages. I love how they show what I spent money on, or what my priorities were. The imagery displays what time of year it is and where I travled to. That might be the grocery store or Italy! And I love the chaos of it.
Because that’s life sometimes: It’s colorful, it’s messy, there’s texture... And it’s mine. I try not to spend too much time curating my legacy. I just want to be happy and live a good life. These journals could be silly and insignificant to anyone that comes across them. But they are mine. I love them because of that.