An Introduction to a New Journal

Hello there,

During the past two weeks I've taken up the habit of writing again, attempting to do so daily in some form or another. I've expiremented with several different journal and diary apps trying to find the best experience to encourage me to keep up and write genuinely productive entries. Gratitude journals don't seem to be good for long-form writing, though I do like the concept. Many of the journal apps I did like didn't include word counts, but knowing how much I've written is a very good incentive for me personally. There's also minimal accountability on the majority of the apps I've tried - there's no public option on most of them, and it's not a social experience beyond my ability to log my journals in my Habitica app. I'm intrigued with this site and hopeful for the potential it could have for me, so we will see how it goes.

My name is Sabel, I am a 25 year old woman living in southern Illinois, despite my better interests. I'm married, and my husband Jimmy and I have a one year old son Dorian. I used to work in retail, most recently at a metaphysical shop, but now I'm a stay at home mom. That being said, I'd really like to eventually go back to working for the feeling of productivity it gave me, but since we plan to homeschool our son that may not be for quite some time. I would like to start writing for income, though that is yet to be seen. Writing romance novels is my current hope however, but I'm also interested in the idea of beginning a personal blog - in just not sure how popular that idea is these days and whether or not it would be worthwhile.

I am a lover of all things spooky. Atmospheric horror is my personal favorite, I'm not too keen on jump scares they just feel cheap. We got married on Halloween and we like to go all out on our anniversary. The first Halloween with our son we dressed up as the Addam's Family with Dorian as baby Pubert from the Family Values movie. I am a proud little goth, and I can't wait for my baby bat to get a little older so I can share all of my interests with him. Right now, however, he's still very much into baby cartoons and videos of dancing fruits. The songs are admittedly very catchy.

We are currently in the process of moving houses, I'm not thrilled about the idea since I love our current home but the property taxes in Illinois are enough to drive you up a wall. We're hoping to find a smaller home where we still feel cozy. I'm going to have to repaint before we sell, though, and I'm dreading having to cover over a thousand square feet of black walls. Don't judge me.

Some of my other interests include cooking, swimming, and interior decorating. My largest time sink, however, is video games. I've always had a love for gaming, and it's only grown now that I have access to adult money. Story driven role playing games are my favorite. I'm very into the Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Atelier, and Bioshock series. Otome games are also a love of mine, since they're essentially romance "choose your own adventure" novels. Essentially, I just love being able to sink myself into a unique fictional world and explore. Sometimes real world drama just needs to take a backseat to adventure and mystery - it's good for my mental well-being.

My hope for my future with journaling is that I'll be able to look back on my previous self and grow in my personal development, parenting, interpersonal relationships, and confidence. Sometimes, though, I draw a complete blank once I'm sitting in front of the page. I may use a blend of prompts, media reviews, thought dumping, and so on. The majority of my prompts I hope to make public to keep me accountable, so if you decide to tag along you can expect a blend of ideas and styles of writing from me over time. Maybe someday I'll have enough variety in my day-to-day to write a full post of just my daily happenings, but for right now you'd just be hearing about the endless monotony of toddler parenting. Nobody wants to change a diaper, and I'm sure you don't want to read about changing them either.

See you next time,

Sabel