Remember the good times through junk journaling

Jahfreen Alam is a second-year PharmD candidate at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Student pharmacists are not strangers to balancing obligations with their personal lives. Time-consuming classes, constant exams, long shifts, and keeping up with commitments can make the school year pass by in a blur and cause us to neglect our well-being. When I start thinking of time in deadlines, I know that’s an important sign for me to take a step back.

I recognized the importance of grounding myself when I felt stressed over the course of my first year of pharmacy school. Even if my Google Calendar disagreed with me, there was always time to set aside for myself to regain balance. To help me destress and keep the memories I made during pharmacy school, I started junk journaling.

What is junk journaling and how is it different from scrapbooking?

Initially, scrapbooking sounded like a perfect hobby for me, as someone who loves all things stationery-related. Finally, I thought, all my stickers and colored pens would have a home! However, I found myself stressing out about a cohesive theme for my scrapbook, selecting the best pictures and decorations, or even starting the dreaded first page.

I was stuck in an activity that was supposed to help me destress, but it made me feel more stressed. To free myself from the traditional confines of scrapbooking, I started junk journaling instead.

The beauty of junk journaling is that it can be anything that you want it to be. There are no rules. It’s this lack of commitment to follow a format that I needed to destress, especially when it was a busy week (or month), and I didn’t have the bandwidth to spend more than 5 minutes on a page.

This way of thinking allowed me the grace of having emptier pages next to fuller ones. I could glue in what I wanted or write a lot—or nothing at all.

Declutter your physical space and mind

I like to call myself a memory squirrel—I’ll hold onto anything that I think is memorable. This could be a nametag from a networking event, lanyards from a pharmacy conference, or even grocery receipts. It’s hard for me to throw these things away because it feels like I’ll forget them, but it’s even harder for me to find space to store them. That’s why these little keepsakes are the perfect thing to put in a junk journal. This helps to organize the environment around you, which increases productivity and concentration, and provides a space to share and save your thoughts and feelings.

Appreciate the scraps and all the little things

Above all else, junk journaling has helped me remember the good times that happened during pharmacy school and appreciate the little things that can be taken for granted and (literally) thrown away. It’s this receipt from my favorite coffee shop that helped me focus for a study session. It’s this ticket from a late-night movie I saw with my group of pharmacy friends after an exam. It’s this photo booth strip I took with my hometown friends to remind me that I have a support system elsewhere, too. Value the scraps!

While it’s important for student pharmacists to focus on tasks and studies, it’s also important to enjoy your years of schooling while it lasts. Remember to make memories out of junk, and keep them, too!