Meet Sammy, the person behind @sammysjournal on Instagram!
🌻 What's the story behind @sammysjournal?
I started using a bullet journal towards the end of my freshman year in college to keep track of my packed schedules and different deadlines. At first, it was purely for planning purposes, but as I got more comfortable using the journal, I started writing down my thoughts and documenting my memories in it.
I also got inspired by the aesthetic and creative bullet journal pages I was seeing on Instagram and Pinterest. I started using my journal as a creative outlet, and it helped me get back into art and creating.
I went through four journals before finally starting a bullet journal account on Instagram. Part of the reason was to encourage others who might be interested in journaling to give it a try, but part of it was also to document my memories and progress as my art and journaling style evolves.
🌻 What are your most special memories from 2020?
2020 was such a weird year for me - as I am sure it is for everyone. So many notable things happened: I graduated college, I moved across the country from LA to Chicago, and started a small business (aka Project Memory, haha!)
It's kind of weird, but some of the moments I want to always remember are the little things. I want to remember how my small, cramped college apartment looked like during the midst of finals week, when my desk was flooded with papers, books, and cups of unfinished coffee. I want to remember the long walks around the neighborhood with my roommates, because that was the only time we allowed ourselves to leave the apartment (with all the pandemic scare).
I want to remember baking dessert every week with my roommate during the summer, and sitting on the floor of my new apartment in Chicago with furniture pieces around me. It's the fleeting moments that really capture the essence of 2020.
🌻 How do you personally document the precious memories in your life?
I think it's really important to take a lot of pictures in my day to day life. Pictures usually trigger more in depth, detailed memories that I would forget otherwise. I have tried various ways to systematically document my life, and here are some of my favorite ways to memory-keep!
I love using my journal to write about my experiences. I use a mini polaroid printer to print photos of moments that I want to remember and write about them in my journal. I also like to stick mementos like movie tickets, letters, and other random things - anything I can stick with a washi tape or glue, really - on my weekly spreads.
Recently, I've been creating dedicated physical photo albums for my travels. I compiled a photo album for each one of my college spring break trips, and I'm planning to make them for my family holiday trips too. I found that printing out photos made them more accessible to me, because my phone photo gallery is so cluttered with junk like screenshots and more. The process of compiling these albums is also very therapeutic and allows me to relive the trip a bit!
I've also been using a disposable film camera to capture random moments of my life. Over the summer (my last summer in LA), I made sure to use up all of the 27 exposures on my disposable camera. The result was a set of unique, curated snapshots that really captured my summer!
Lastly, I also use digital means to document random memories (I am a bit obsessive over documentation, if you can't tell) - I have a private Instagram account where I just post pictures that I don't want to lose, I excessively use Instagram stories and highlights to document my travel adventures, and I have dabbled with using the 1 second a day app (I've stopped doing this though). I plan to compile all of the random videos on my phone from this year and have a long video titled "2020" - a lil time capsule for my future self! :) ❤️
You can see more of Sammy's work and creations on her Instagram: @sammysjournal
Our first product, The Chronicle Photo Journal, will be launching very soon. Sign up for early access here.