2024: journal compilation

a prose poem to take myself into this new year 🌠

When I taught high school, journaling was a foundational element of my classroom practice. We wrote in our journals at the start of every class, sometimes in response to material we were discussing, but more often in response to random prompts or topics of students’ own choosing. Their journals were private and I never asked to see them, but I did ask them to go back through their journals at the end of each semester and put together a compilation of excerpts they found interesting, compelling, or surprising. In that vein, I decided to do the same with my journals from 2024 and wouldn’t you know it? Some powerful themes quickly emerged. Here’s a found poem composed of whole sentences take from my journal over the past year.

I am remembering how to be alone
but not lonely. How can I make myself
my safest space?

The only way out is through - trust
myself first. I can laugh at myself,
give myself permission to be 
a person, to change my mind, to 
	keep trying.

I want to live // on my 
own terms.
	When I worry that other people
don’t trust me, it’s because I have
stopped trusting myself.

	How can I make myself
my safest space?

I’m remembering. I am really and truly
only a vessel–all I have to do
	is make myself ready.

No more standing in my own way. 

What is it that you
want, Nishta Mehra? Your gift is
		your responsibility.

Am I willing to be unreasonable
	for myself, the way I have so often
been for others?

I trust myself
I trust myself
I trust myself
I trust myself

	I have been settling for less than
I deserve. No more outsourcing my truth.

Thank you, as always, for being here, for your readership and support. I hope you all had a wonderful, safe holiday and I am excited to share more with you in 2025!

xoxo

Nishta