As term stretches on, the lockdown fatigue has really started to take its toll. I’ve found myself missing the act of travel but also the creativity and freedom it affords. Something I have found is particularly cathartic, however, is reading my own diary.

I’ve been filling out a ‘one line a day’ diary for almost four years now. I started it during the second half of my gap year in 2017, at which point it was hard to whittle down everything I did into one line a day! Between my travels in Laos, Cambodia, New Zealand, Australia, and North America, 2017 was an action-packed year that saturated my diary. It’s almost funny to think that it used to annoy me that I often couldn’t fit everything that I wanted to say.

Flash-forward four years, and now I struggle to even string a sentence together about my days in lockdown. Skimming up a couple of lines, however, I’m reminded each day about the amazing travels that I’ve been on and the incredible memories that I have carried with me. Reading these little snippets of my past is really refreshing and reminds me to be more grateful for what I have during this time. It allows me to travel back through my own memories each evening and definitely makes another long day in lockdown easier.

So if you have your own diary, read it! They’re a great place to write during the moment, but also to look back on during times like these. If you don’t have a diary, start one! You don’t have to write about what you’ve done today, you can reflect on your memories, the places and people you miss, and what you’re dying to do in a post-COVID world. If writing isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other options. You can make a photo diary, an art diary, or a music diary, just to name a few. For me, music always takes me back to a specific place I’ve been – allowing me to travel imaginatively and retrospectively. If I’ve listened to a song a lot on a particular day or over a week, then I’ll jot it down and be able to listen to it again when I look back at it. Small acts like these can make our restricted lives a lot easier by adding a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Please don’t lose hope! These times are tough, and if it’s travel that you’re missing then there are plenty of ways that we can make do with a little creativity for now.

Featured image by Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels.