Seeing My Day in a Different Way

Here’s a paragraph from my own journal, followed by variations . 

I feel like I need to tell you about yesterday before I can talk about today. Yesterday was honestly a really awesome day, though I got only a ¼ of the homework done I needed too. I went to Devo and ran into Carter and since it was President Nelson we were there two hours early so we got caught up. Which was great. He is in love with his current girlfriend and they are adorable.

1.

·     I went to Devo 

·     Ran into Carter, met girlfriend

·     Had convo about perfectionism with Zach 

·     Haley’s confession 

[List]

2. Today was a day full of tender mercies. First, I ran into Carter and got to sit with him for devotional. I haven’t seen him since before Jerusalem, so it was nice to catch up. Then the devotional was with President Nelson and it was awesome. It also led me having a conversation with Haley that really need to have. Later I ran into Zach, who I also haven’t talked to in forever. He shared with me some of his struggles and I realized that I have gone through a lot of the same things. I was able to share some meaningful insights with him. I didn’t get enough homework done, but I feel like everything that happened today happened for a reason. 

[Gratitude]

3. I couldn’t believe my eyes, who would have thought that amidst the 600+ people filing into the Marriot Center that Carter would happen to be walking right next me. I was caught off guard and our initial greeting was awkward. We began catching me and he followed me and Joanna through the portal and into a one of the rows closer to the ground floor. I am glad things weren’t awkward between us after everything that happened last summer. I had missed him and was excited to catch up.  

[Novel like retelling]

4. The excitement was almost tangible in the air. The number of body parts in the room was overwhelming. I couldn’t believe that there was still 20 minutes till the devotional, the Marriot was jam packed. The choir director’s voice rang through the conference center as she spouted out words of encouragement. She wanted them to do their very best. It seemed even the center itself understood what was about to happen. The lights seemed to shine a little brighter. The chairs and floor seemed a little cleaner.

[descriptive of setting]

5. Today I learned a lot. I realized that sometimes things are not going to go the way you thought they would, but that’s okay. I had three different conversations today that took up all of my time, but I think that they were so important. One helped me to be feel comfortable with an old friendship. Another helped me realize I could bless other with my hard experiences and the final one helped me to better understand the struggles of my sister. 

[more focused on the outcomes of the day instead of what happened] 

I think I really like the novel telling one. I don’t think I will do it everyday, but it forced me to focus on what the interesting aspects of my day were. I liked writing all these various versions of my day, because it made me think about what really was significant to me that day. Also that by changing what was significant, my whole day seemed different.