Questing: 7+ years of online journaling

It's a new year. I haven't had much time to reflect, but I want to note a few things about Quixotica.

Quixotica currently has 322 entries. These entries cover the years from 1997 to the beginning, and ongoing entries of 2004. They follow me through parts of my freshman year in college, through my graduation, 4+ jobs, my wedding, the first draft of my first novel and the diagnosis of my father's cancer.

Some of the original entries were ones I submitted to places like Olio and Afterdinner, before I had an online journal of my own. They are still much like personal journal entries (though perhaps edited a bit more), as the places the pieces had been submitted to have fallen, I have placed the entries here.

The earlier entries show my initial foray into online journaling. At the time I started, there were really, not all that many people journaling online. I was in awe of people like Lance Arthur, Alex Massie, Maggy Donea and Ben Brown. These were people who were really baring their feelings, and sharing their lives through the internet, and I was fascinated.

I don't claim Questing to be that real, or that raw, but it exists, and has been, and is heading into it's eighth year online. Most of the journaling I do, is not so much for audience, as it is for myself. Life is just too big, too fast, to remember everything that goes by. I've tried to record events and emotions so I can recall them later. Mental bookmarks, perhaps. There are times that too much happens and I don't write, or there are things I don't want to deal with. I admit there are gaps, and things I just can’t share with the Internet at large. I never promise this to be an expose, but it has value to me. It’s a roadmap of a good chunk of my coming of age. I can honestly say it's pretty much the longest I've ever really stuck with any sort of project, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.

For a while, I had a secret journal, titled Quixote, and a poetry journal titled Sanity, these were mostly hidden away in a directory on my University account. When I purchased Quixotica, I eventually came to title the journal Questing. Much of the poetry I haven’t republished here, but a good deal of it was created when my husband and I started dating, and it has a good deal of sentimental value.

Some of the entries have been lost in the digital landscape. Some of the ones I made when I was working on campus for the summer, got lost in transit from my university account to Quixotica. That summer the man I would eventually marry broke up with me. It was heart wrenching, but I worked through it. I was my own person, and learning how to be myself, and deal with the sadness of not being with the one I loved. All those things worked out, but I do wish I had those few entries, to fill in the gaps of narrative.

The first year has the smallest number entries, though I've tended to average about 51 entries a year in the full years I've been journaling.

Here are the basic statistics.
Year | Entries
1997 | 09
1998 | 42
1999 | 43
2000 | 46
2001 | 83
2002 | 38
2003 | 54
2004 | 06 including this entry


When I have time, I may pull some other statistics out.

Man, heading into my eighth year of online journaling. I admit, I never really thought much about how long I’d be doing this, or how much it would encompass.

Sometimes I think about collecting all these entries, and as many of my paper ones I can find, and make one big volume of the collected writings of Stacie. I know they might not be all that racy, or compelling, but the perspective you might get from a 2nd grader to a 25 year old woman, might be worth a once through.

I’ve really found journaling, even online, even self-censored, to be a relaxing and fruitful experience. I plan to continue on, writing when and what I can. There’s never a better time to start your own personal roadmap. You never know where it may lead.

Questing: 7+ years of online journaling

It's a new year. I haven't had much time to reflect, but I want to note a few things about Quixotica.

Quixotica currently has 322 entries. These entries cover the years from 1997 to the beginning, and ongoing entries of 2004. They follow me through parts of my freshman year in college, through my graduation, 4+ jobs, my wedding, the first draft of my first novel and the diagnosis of my father's cancer.

Some of the original entries were ones I submitted to places like Olio and Afterdinner, before I had an online journal of my own. They are still much like personal journal entries (though perhaps edited a bit more), as the places the pieces had been submitted to have fallen, I have placed the entries here.

The earlier entries show my initial foray into online journaling. At the time I started, there were really, not all that many people journaling online. I was in awe of people like Lance Arthur, Alex Massie, Maggy Donea and Ben Brown. These were people who were really baring their feelings, and sharing their lives through the internet, and I was fascinated.

I don't claim Questing to be that real, or that raw, but it exists, and has been, and is heading into it's eighth year online. Most of the journaling I do, is not so much for audience, as it is for myself. Life is just too big, too fast, to remember everything that goes by. I've tried to record events and emotions so I can recall them later. Mental bookmarks, perhaps. There are times that too much happens and I don't write, or there are things I don't want to deal with. I admit there are gaps, and things I just can’t share with the Internet at large. I never promise this to be an expose, but it has value to me. It’s a roadmap of a good chunk of my coming of age. I can honestly say it's pretty much the longest I've ever really stuck with any sort of project, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.

For a while, I had a secret journal, titled Quixote, and a poetry journal titled Sanity, these were mostly hidden away in a directory on my University account. When I purchased Quixotica, I eventually came to title the journal Questing. Much of the poetry I haven’t republished here, but a good deal of it was created when my husband and I started dating, and it has a good deal of sentimental value.

Some of the entries have been lost in the digital landscape. Some of the ones I made when I was working on campus for the summer, got lost in transit from my university account to Quixotica. That summer the man I would eventually marry broke up with me. It was heart wrenching, but I worked through it. I was my own person, and learning how to be myself, and deal with the sadness of not being with the one I loved. All those things worked out, but I do wish I had those few entries, to fill in the gaps of narrative.

The first year has the smallest number entries, though I've tended to average about 51 entries a year in the full years I've been journaling.

Here are the basic statistics.
Year | Entries
1997 | 09
1998 | 42
1999 | 43
2000 | 46
2001 | 83
2002 | 38
2003 | 54
2004 | 06 including this entry


When I have time, I may pull some other statistics out.

Man, heading into my eighth year of online journaling. I admit, I never really thought much about how long I’d be doing this, or how much it would encompass.

Sometimes I think about collecting all these entries, and as many of my paper ones I can find, and make one big volume of the collected writings of Stacie. I know they might not be all that racy, or compelling, but the perspective you might get from a 2nd grader to a 25 year old woman, might be worth a once through.

I’ve really found journaling, even online, even self-censored, to be a relaxing and fruitful experience. I plan to continue on, writing when and what I can. There’s never a better time to start your own personal roadmap. You never know where it may lead.