Deeeeaaaaar diary

A couple nights ago, I walked by the bookshelf in my room and realized how FRIGGIN dusty it was! Yeeeeaaah...I don't dust. I'm super tidy and neat, but I don't clean clean very often. This thick level of dust required immediate action...at 11 o'clock, on a Wednesday night mind you. As I proceeded to dust I naturally began looking through my old photo albums and such because let's face it, I'm easily distracted by shiny, colorful things:)

As I looked through old albums of college shenanigans, and Costa Rica travel, I came across an old journal with a few entries from my two trips to Italy when I was living in Thailand. That sentence alone makes me want to get off my butt and go somewhere, ANYWHERE. What a sweet and awesome traveling life I had for two years! I decided that I liked the idea of keeping a travel journal back when I took my first trip to a new country sans parents. The idea being that I would have a written record of my thoughts, experiences and all the feelings that I had while discovering a new place:) The first time that I kept a travel journal was when Leah, Lauren and I traveled to Costa Rica the summer before I moved to Thailand. At the end of every single day of our two week trek around Costa Rica I would sit on the bed, knees drawn up and hand write about the adventures we'd had that day. Leah thought this was hilarious! She in turn would say to me as I pulled out my travel journal, (a journal that I received from my bestest Jessie) "Deeeeeaaaar Diary!" It became an ongoing joke for the entire trip. Although they poked fun at me every day when I wrote in my travel log, I'm so so SO grateful that I took the time to sit down, reflect and record all the amazing things I was able to see and do while traveling around Costa Rica. The picture album I have is an excellent way to remember all that we did, but there is something about reading my own words, thoughts and actually being able to recall the feelings I was having at the time. I didn't do as great of a job recording my travels in Italy and Thailand, but I do have a few journal entries that bring back happy memories that take me back:) I encourage those of you who do travel to try writing in a journal, even if it is just a word or two to describe your day because having that tangible book to look back over is a wonderful way to relive fantastic memories! HAPPY TRAVELS!! ♥