Dear class,

Some of you may be wondering why you are asked to write a journal entry after every lesson. In the past, I have wondered about the same thing as well.  Being someone who loves to read rather than write, I often find delight in reading about the adventures of the lead character(s) in novels. It’s really exciting to join them in their adventures.  This is before I enrolled in a literature course.

When I first came into contact with literature, I was surprised to learn that I love writing too. This is because it’s really a joy to understand stories at a deeper level and writing about them. However, the stories that I analysed is still somewhat impersonal and foreign to me. Reflective writing is still not in my mind when I engage with literature studies.

It is only much later – after reading books for a good number of years- that I realise the real joy of life is not only in reading stories written by other writers but rather, living through our own writing written using our own words after reflecting on our own life experiences. I have realised that I have learnt more through self-reflection than reading novels.

Therefore, it’s great to see all of you putting your thoughts down in your journals and hopefully, you will – like me- find great joy and satisfaction in writing about your own life experiences.