A FADED e-bus ticket, a string of ribbon from last year’s Christmas party, a small shell from a family beach outing — to most people, these are forgotten scraps from a year that has just passed. To a journaler, these are raw artifacts that can merge together to create a masterpiece.
As the world dwells on champagne glasses and distant vision boards, they reach for their notebooks, crumpled papers, and fragments of the past, and assemble a collage of their futures. To them, a spark of a firework corresponds to a decisive snip. Welcome to the world of junk journaling: where this year, trash becomes treasure, and real change begins.
At its heart, a junk journal is a tactile sanctuary — a physical collection of memories that correspond to found objects that merge to tell a story only its creator can wholeheartedly decipher. However, it isn’t purely sentimental. This “colorful chaos” induces dopamine and embraces the practice of upcycling. By giving life to what once was thrown away, the journaler benefits both the environment and their own mental health. It is the perfect medium to express one’s feelings, store memories, and celebrate the art of giving second chances.
Anyone can be a journaler. It is the anemic academic who finds solace in pressing a makahiya leaf into their scruffed up exam notebook. It is the city tourist who pockets a greasy napkin from their favorite bibingka stall in Molo Plaza, preserving it as a sweet relic for their travel log. It may even be the overwhelmed professional who quietly collects concert tickets of their favorite artists, capturing the very melodies that lifted them from a dark place. In this society, there is no “correct” way of journaling. Here, honest breadcrumbs of a life prevail.
As the world feeds on praising the latest things, journalers rebel. While the start of the year sparks the rush of purchasing picture-perfect planners and high-tech gadgets, the junk journaler collects elsewhere. They sift through plastic bags, collecting receipts to stick on chunky notebooks. They dip their hands into dusty cabinets, searching for old envelopes and chewed up paper scraps, looking for “treasure” — choosing to divert waste from landfills and pasting them into artistic binders.
Junk journaling is an act of environmentalism that brings a smile to whoever practices it, providing them with a new perspective: art doesn’t have to be ‘brand-new’ to be beautiful. By being a pause to the ever changing way of the world, it guides journalers to create whilst reducing carbon footprints, making every page a colorful but quiet protest against a throwaway culture.
So, as the fireworks clear and the flashy sunglasses get stowed away for another 12 months, don’t feel pressured to buy into a “new you” that requires store bought promises. Instead, search for old paper scraps and shovel your pockets for faded receipts. This year isn’t a blank, it is an empty notebook waiting to be smeared with slimy glue, greasy food wrappers, and pictures filled with smiles. Whether you’re seeking sanctuary in your room or at a lively plaza, don’t just think about a new year’s resolution. Instead, make a revolutionary masterpiece out of “trash” and make your year a meaningful one — one scrap at a time./PN
