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Senior year of undergrad is the busiest and craziest year for all students. Senior theses are due, everything is the "last," and you're lucky if you can escape a conversation without someone asking what you're doing after graduation. And all the while, you're trying to enjoy the year and make memories that'll top the last three years worth.
Between a full course load including two majors, interning part-time at an international company and leading the school's theatre troupe, I knew that I needed a great planner. If I didn't have one that caught everything, deadlines would be missed and I would be in for a world of hurt. But the search for the perfect planner took me weeks and none of them had everything I wanted. If they had the layout I wanted, the price was too high. If it was within my price range, the layout was all wrong. Some were too big for carrying in a purse, and some were far too small for my large handwriting. I was the Goldilocks of planners, looking for the one that would be Just Right.
That's when I found Bullet Journaling.
I first encountered it on Pinterest and fell down the internet black hole, watching YouTube videos, reading Tumblr posts and liking nearly every Instagram picture tagged #bulletjournal. And this free-for-all, create-your-own planner system seemed perfect for my unique schedule and school needs. It was customizable and creative, and all you needed was a blank journal. Just what I wanted.
It ended up working well. The freedom to change the layout on a daily or weekly basis helped me manage my busier weeks with more ease and my more relaxed weeks with virtually no stress. Having all the space I wanted for to-do lists ensured that nothing fell through the cracks, even during technical and show weeks for plays and musicals.
And journaling really helped my mental health when the stress got high. Having the creative freedom to design my planner every day let me experiment and explore with art and color, and it was a great stress release to end each day by setting up the next day's/week's pages and beginning each day with a new and colorful page.
But the best part of Bullet Journaling my senior year was the way that it allowed me to capture memories of each day. As I planned the next day, I reminisced about the previous one and wrote down everything that happened, good or bad. It was meditative and helped me reflect on my personal journey across those final 9 months of education. And when it came to the end of the year, I had a whole journal that cataloged the year. The good, the bad, and the ugly were all there, forever immortalized in a handy-dandy journal.
If bullet journaling appeals to you, all you need to start is a pen and a journal of your choice. And for gorgeous journals and notebooks, be sure to visit our shop.
Submitted by dotted journal lover – Kerri H. Thanks for sharing, Kerri! If you have a BUJO story or journal page photos you’d like to share with Epica fans, please send a note to: info@Epica.com