What is the definition of a journal?  A book where you record what you did each day?  A diary filled with your personal thoughts, experiences, and dreams?  A collection of your poetry, stories, or sketches?

Actually, a journal can be any one of these things or even a mix of them.  Pretty much the only requirement for a journal is that you write in it.  The writing could be pages and pages about something exciting, frustrating, sad, or dreadfully boring that happened to you that day.  It could be the first few lines of a poem you’ve been working on.  Maybe it’s a small as the caption or the date and title of your latest sketch.  What about your assignment book?  If you’re writing in it regularly, surprise! It’s a JOURNAL.
 
However you choose to format your journal, the most important thing is that it is meaningful to YOU.  At school, everyone is expected to write about things that aren’t their favorite topics once in a while.  Remember that report you had to write about the water cycle for school?  Or the thank you note to Grandma for the shirt that just wasn’t your style?  

That kind of writing can often feel forced and like a chore.  But would you feel the same way if someone put a blank white sheet of paper down in front of you and just said “go nuts?”

Writing when it is expected of us is just a part of life- a part of life that continues on well into adulthood, by the way- but your journal should be a place just for you.  It should be a place where you get excited to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard or charcoal to sketchpad or…well you get the picture).  It’s the one place you get to write about only the things that are important to you.