I grew up being horrible at languages. English classes in the US and Korean classes in Korea both have been very difficult to me. Writing was especially difficult. I would stay up late multiple nights to be able to write very basic essays.

Throughout my adult years, I have been doing a lot of growing. I am still the Sophia that does STEM but I took a lot of time to fill out my other skills. I slowly been able to hold regular conversations, be more social with different people and I have been able to look at myself and others with more compassion and understanding. Somewhere along the line, I learned how to express it all, and began to write.

At first I used my phone and my laptop to take notes on any subjects that I wanted to develop. I kept a long word document full of ideas and half written topics which I would regularly go back in and develop more. This worked out really well for me because I have been addicted to my laptop and the Internet. They grew to be an extension of myself, and I would have anxiety whenever I was away from my laptop.

But the last few months, I have been going to the clinic almost on a daily basis, and we were not allowed laptops nor cell phones there. So instead I bought some nice pens and a journal to write down notes for myself and put down ideas I wanted to further expand upon. And I carried that around every day instead of my laptop and it felt freeing. Not having to be 100% connected all the time and being able to draw boundaries with myself. And also I found that the physical act of writing on pen and paper was also very relaxing and healing.

So now I carry my journal around with me and do my writing there. It has been wonderful to be able to use it to capture my thoughts and things of my environment. And of course I still carry my phone around me, it is a much smaller gateway to the Internet than my laptop was and I can manage it.

I would highly encourage anyone to have a journal.