whodunnit

I have a lot in common with some famous people. Ever heard of Frank Warren, the Freedom Writers, Anne Frank or Samuel Pepys? If you have, then you'll know they're all journal keepers in their own special ways. If you haven't heard of them, listen up!

It's hard to define exactly what Frank Warren does. He's more of a compiler of journal entries than a journaler himself. You see, Warren created PostSecret, "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard." I believe that each post card sent in represents a journal entry: someone is writing something down about their life. Warren has taken many of these post cards and compiled them in books with his own comentary interspersed.
Want to get a feel for what he's doing? Go to the PostSecret blog: http://postsecret.blogspot.com/. So you see, journaling can take many forms; even decorated postcards can be journals.

The Freedom Writers run along the same lines as Warren. This is a collection of journal entries from a group of teenagers put together by their teacher. In her English class, Erin Gruwell taught her students to write by making them keep journals. These weren't any ordinary kids, though. They lived in a neighborhood where gang violence, eviction and poverty were prevalent and being studious was looked down on. The entries can be pretty graphic, but you can tell as time progresses, the writing becomes more understandable and the teenagers learn to work through their problems. Again, a journal doesn't have to be a collection of one person's thoughts and work; it can be a collection of many people's.

Imagine playing hide-and-seek for a couple of years in a small set of rooms with your whole family and then some. Welcome to the world of 10-year-old Anne Frank. When the Nazis invaded, Frank's childhood was cut short. Not only was it scary being chased by people who wanted to hurt you, it was boring not being able to go to school or play with friends. So what did Frank do to pass time? She wrote letters in her diary to a make-believe friend named Kitty. She also wrote poems and short stories, practicing for when she grew up and became an author. Just goes to show you that letters can be considered journalistic material, too.

So you may have never heard of Samuel Pepys, but this guy was awesome. Back in the 17th century in England, he was there for it all! He saw Oliver Cromwell come to power and die and then the ensuing struggle for the throne. He wrote about the Great Fire of London and even saw the king's reaction to it firsthand. Oh, and did I mention he talks about everyday life in England in a way that no one else can? That's right, he tells us what he had for breakfast and what time he went to bed and the construction of this building and what the bakery was making. Want a snippet? One of his entries are published daily at this site: www.pepysdiary.com.

The moral of this story is the point I hope you've learned: there's no one way to journal. You can compile quotes, write letters, draw pictures. And as an added bonus, you'll also have something in common with some pretty famous people.