#12: Start a journal (wherein the author takes pleasure in small victories)

Okay, so this one is a bit of a 'gimme'...the original list only said 'START a journal', so after having completed two entries, I'm calling this one a success.

I have to thank my mother for making this one possible, because if she hadn't so serendipitously purchased me a journal for Christmas, this probably would have lingered for months in the 'Easy things that require very little effort to complete but somehow aren't getting crossed off' pile.

I was hesitant to add this 'thing' to the list, because my forays into personal journaling as a child were so painfully self-aware and self-impressed; I remember very clearly sitting on my bed at age 11, chronicling the very torrid events of my middle-schooler life in such a way that, if ever my diary were to be found by future generations, I would be remembered on-par with Anne Frank. I don't think anyone had really explained to me what actually happened during the Holocaust, or else I was just so wrapped up in the daily goings-on of play-ground romances that I thought they were of equal importance. Not sure which.

Anyway, this go-around has already has proved interesting; yesterday's entry was a summation of my thoughts about President Obama's innauguration. Again I found myself slipping into a style and metre that was way too self-conscious of who might be reading my 'prophetic prose' in some distant future, but I'm working on that.