When I was 10, I asked Santa Claus to bring me scrapbooking supplies for Christmas. I wanted all the stickers, colored paper, and glitter that the north pole had to offer. I was obsessed with this for about a year but then I eventually got bored and stopped… until now. At the beginning of 2025, my friend Grace and I decided to start “junk journaling.” Junk journaling became popular on social media in the past few years. Essentially all it is is collecting random pieces of junk from events in your life, sticking it in a journal, and then making it look pretty. It’s a more attainable version of journaling or scrapbooking because junk journaling is up to personal interpretation; there is no wrong way to do it. While some trends can result in negative behaviors, I believe this one is positive because it gives opportunities to reflect and is completely harmless.
I love having a place to put all of the scraps I get from concerts, dances, and coffee runs. It gives me an activity to do and a way to remember my high school years.
In addition to scrapbooking the supplies I get, I also love collecting them. It adds a new aspect to traveling in particular; I love finding all the fun things to collect so I can add it to my scrapbook later. I also love doing this because it’s a free way to remember your trip. You don’t have to pay for the supplies to make a time capsule for your memories.
When I went to New York City this summer, I made a point to ask for any little trinket I could whenever we went into a new shop or restaurant. I even got my dad on board, and he would also be on the lookout for trash. I spent the whole week collecting fun things to remember the trip by. I had so many stickers, and I had collected everything into a bag and left it by the door to our hotel so I would not forget it on the way out. After arriving at the airport after one of the best trips ever, I realized I did not have my bag of junk. My mom had thrown it away because she thought it was literal trash, so I had not seen it on the way out. When she told me this, I fully started crying in the airport. To many this would seem like a stupid reason to start crying, but for me, it was quite devastating. Although I was sad that I lost all of my supplies to scrapbook our trip, I realized that it’s more important to keep the memories. I was still able to scrapbook the trip by printing out pictures and writing little stories.
Through the art of junk journaling, I have grown to learn that while it can be fun to have a physical memory of the special life events, the memories in your head are the most important part. Most importantly, if you decide to start a scrapbook, make sure to hold onto your memories tight, but hold onto your random scrapbooking trash tighter.
