Stephanie Whitehead - Blogging

I find it ironic that we have to write blogs for our class on orality. While I was thinking about it I discovered an answer to a question I had been asking myself for a long time: Why can't I keep a journal? At first glance it has nothing to do with class but after a few leading thoughts it made me think only of this class. I've always wanted to keep a journal like my friends do so I can remember things that happen because my memory is horrible. I curse not journaling proper when I went to the UK. I can barely remember anything I did anymore. The problem is that I can't journal. I used to think it was because I was impatient but the truth is that I merely don't want to miss out on anything. I want to spend my time experiencing instead of writing down my every move. When I was in the UK I was very good about journaling my first few days but I stoped because I felt that it detracted from my trip. It meant spending time away from the actual surroundings and I was removing myself from the area and situations that I was trying to be part of. The act of writing forced me to separate myself from my surroundings and I hated it. The entire point of being there was to submerge into the culture and my surroundings. So instead of focusing on writing every moment of my time there so I could remember the past at a point in the distant future, I enjoyed the moment and lived it. That concept struck me as a pretty decent sum of what we are getting at in class. Writing removes ourselves from the situation instead of living the situation. While it may be only a momentary experience, it was at least experienced instead of sitting on the sidelines observing so later generations can know what happened.