Prev | Current Page 59 | Next

Various

"St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12"




HOW TO KEEP A JOURNAL.
BY W. S. JEROME.

Autumn is as good a time as any for a boy or girl to begin to keep a
journal. Too many have the idea that it is a hard and unprofitable task
to keep a journal, and especially is this the case with those who have
begun, but soon gave up the experiment. They think it is a waste of
time, and that no good results from it. But that depends upon the kind
of journal that you keep. Everybody has heard of the boy who thought he
would try to keep a diary. He bought a book, and wrote in it, for the
first day, "Decided to keep a journal." The next day he wrote, "Got up,
washed, and went to bed." The day after, he wrote the same thing, and no
wonder that at the end of a week he wrote, "Decided not to keep a
journal," and gave up the experiment. It is such attempts as this, by
persons who have no idea of what a journal is, or how to keep it, that
discourage others from beginning. But it is not hard to keep a journal
if you begin in the right way, and will use a little perseverance and
patience. The time spent in writing in a journal is not wasted, by any
means. It may be the best employed hour of any in the day, and a
well-kept journal is a source of pleasure and advantage which more than
repays the writer for the time and trouble spent upon it.
The first thing to do in beginning a journal, is to resolve to stick to
it.


Pages:
47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71