How writing can help us to deal with our problems

By: Mary Valentina Torres Puentes

These last 4 years, mental health has been one of the biggest priorities of society. In
fact, you can find many things, besides therapy, that can help you to improve your
mental health, like doing something new, going outside, working out, writing a
journal, and many outdoors activities that you can choose from according to your
personal tastes. However, what would happen if you were living through a war, a
situation so dangerous that even going outside is a death warrant. You don’t have
anyone to tell your feelings to, just your family, and you feel like you don’t get along
with anyone around you. That was definitely the case of Anne Frank.

“Diary of a Young Girl'' is a book based on Anne Frank’s Diary. She was a Jewish girl
that lived with her family during one of the most horrific times in world’s history, the
Holocaust. Frank described how complex the relationship between her and her
parents was, also talking about her relationship to the other residents of their hiding
spot, like the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer, people that were forced to be confined
in a little annex because of the laws against Jewish people in WWII. This book is
written in a way where the reader can empathize with the writer, imagining and
experiencing how it was to be hidden for almost four years because of your religion,
with no right to anything. She also describes her personal growth; through her
manuscript we can see Anne entering the stage of adolescence, thinking about what
she’ll do if the war ends.

Overall, after almost 3 days of reading this book and reflecting about how messy our
critical thinking is and how we can deal with our biggest problems nowadays and
trying to find a moral situation that covers the Academy’s requirements to reach a C1
level of english, I decided that essay will be about how writing can help us deal
with our problems, where I will explain, according to experts and my personal
experience, how writing is important not just for sharing our thoughts and becoming
good writers, but also because it helps us manage our emotions and face our
problems in a healthy way.

“Writing is not just an optional hobby for young people; it is essential. An inability to
effectively use writing to convey thoughts and ideas prevents many American
students from completing high school, obtaining a postsecondary degree, acquiring a
job that pays a living wage, and participating fully in community and civic life”
(Graham, Harris and Hebert, 2011).

It is considered that having a good writing skill is one of the best abilities that human
beings can have. Nowadays, and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems
many teenagers write their stories in many ways, sharing them with other people in
platforms like Wattpad, Instagram, Tiktok, and others. So, from highschool to
university, it is important to motivate students to develop this potential ability, to learn
more writing skills, and to analyze the story they want to tell.

Writing in a diary, or Journaling, is a practice where people archive their experiences

in a notebook. It helps improve your mental health and drain your emotions in a
healthy way.

“Journaling, in its various forms, is a means for recording personal thoughts, daily
experiences and evolving insights”
Uses and benefits of Journal writing (Hiemstra R. 2001).

The process often evokes conversations with oneself, or even an imagined other
person. Add to this the advantage available in most journaling formats, of being able
to review or reread earlier reflections and progressive clarifications of insights is
possible. So, journaling is one of the best tools you can use to improve and reflect
upon your thoughts. The process of writing by hand is also effective because it not
only helps you to catch things quickly, it also helps you to practice your calligraphy.
However, you can choose a computer, a typewriter, or whatever you want.

Writing is often associated with Academia, books, essays and many other boring
things. But “Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, shows us how a 14 year old teen
has good critical thinking skills and shows her personal growth, walking us through
the experience of living with people you don’t know and how hard it is being a
teenager in a war. But the thing that catches the attention of the readers, in my case,
is how that girl wrote her diary. Showing us her emotions, her opinions and how
optimistic she was without knowing what the future held. This book is a good
example of why writing is one of the best ways to show ourselves to the world. The
big difference is the era it was written in. She belonged to a generation for whom
writing was a big priority in order to be good in school. That is why it is not surprising
Anne Frank wrote her diary like a philosopher.

“Being able to write well allows students to think critically about subjects, develop
arguments, and engage more deeply with course material. Writing skills also help
students become better organized, more persuasive, and more confident in their
ability to express themselves on paper.”
(Global Indian International School, 2023)

As we can see, Anne Frank didn’t only explain the experience of the war in a diary,
she also showed between letters how curious it was that someone was interested in
reading her musings and the things she wanted to get out of her chest, things that
many teenagers might want to show. We can see in the first chapters that she
considered her diary as a friend, whom she called Kitty. She used the diary to write
letters to Kitty, telling her how her day was. Being confined to a small space with
your family and people you don’t know is not easy for anyone, in particular for a
young girl. She starts to experience changes, like not fitting in with her family’s image
of her (considering her to be the baby), something so well-written you can imagine it
in your head. Things like how they used to transport themselves using a ferry as the
only way because they even couldn’t use bikes because of the restrictions to jewish
people included transportation.

This diary is a good example of why you have to drain your emotions. As we can see
in the entry of September 2, 1942, Anne Frank shows how upset she is not being
able to go outside just for being Jewish, but the fear of being shot is bigger than
every negative feeling she has. Obviously, the diary wasn’t the only thing she had to
entertain herself with; she had books to help her study languages. She and all of the
family members used to practice calisthenics. They were behaving as normal
people, even while hidden from the Nazis. Anne was capable of memorizing the
details of the many conversations the occupants of the Annex had and portrayed
them in a meticulous way.

“A journal or diary is much more than just a book filled with personal thoughts and
experiences. It is a powerful tool that can help improve various aspects of one's life.
From mental health to personal growth, keeping a journal offers countless benefits”
(Journey Cloud Blog, 2022).

So, writing a journal is a way to do introspection, looking at our choices and what we
should change about ourselves. As we can see in the book, On November 2, 1942
(p,55), Anne knew that her period was coming soon, and she explained how excited
she was about that momentous event. Later, on January 22, 1944, she rereads and
she can’t believe how innocent she was 2 years before. Also, on November 20,
1942, Anne wrote:

”No matter what I’m doing, I can’t help thinking about those who are gone. I catch
myself laughing and remember that it’s a disgrace to be so cheerful. But am I
supposed to spend the whole day crying? No, I can’t do that. This gloom will pass.”
(p, 67)

In this paragraph Anne shows feelings of guilt because of all the jewish people who
have died in concentration camps, and feelings of hope about her future. Those are
a few examples we can see in this diary, used as a voice of freedom and resilience.
It shows that a voice cannot be silenced in spite of the consequences war brings.

After this little explanation about Anne Frank’s Journaling and how her diary marked
a before and after in World’s history, I want to share my experience with journaling
and how it made me rethink the way I see my life, helping me discover myself after
something as simple as moving to another place. Being a foreigner is not easy. y
Moving to another place to study seemed like an ideal way to become independent
and do whatever I wanted, at least until I realized I depend economically on my
parents. Getting lost in my new place, meeting new people and everything related to
the process of building a new life was annoying and stressful. Dividing food until my
parents sent me money, having to save money for important things, not making
friends because people around me were weird (they were wealthy), those things
were my best friends in this little adventure called studying far away from home. This
was my experience.

I could deal with my problems in many ways, like jogging in the mornings, learning
something new, going outside, etc. I discovered that I could communicate and
manifest my emotions without needing to talk to a friend or a relative, with just a
simple notebook and a pencil. And, if I was creative and had enough money, I could
make a scrapbook. So, I started writing about how bad I felt and I began to improve
as time passed. That notebook became the closest friend I’ve ever had, pages and
pages of secrets and opinions I couldn’t reveal to others, at least at the moment.
Another experience that journaling brought me was reflecting on my personal identity
like Anne did, discovering my personal tastes and trying to be authentic in my
choices. The pandemic was the best self therapy I ever had; I improved my writing
skills in Spanish because I started learning English after the lockdown and, since last
year, I’ve been journaling in English, which has helped me to apply what I read in my
writings. Besides, it helped me a lot to expand my vocabulary and improve my
writing skills by learning new words that will work in the future. In conclusion,
Journaling is a good habit to put things down quickly, learn to arrange your ideas and
practice writing. The experience of reading “Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank is
something that I recommend to people that want to know about history from another
perspective. It can help them empathize and reflect about the consequences of war.
Also this book, to my way of thinking, is resumed in hope and resilience.

Finally, I really think that Diary of a Young Girl is one of the best books you can
choose to start learning english because you can expand your vocabulary, learn
about world history and experience it in first person as well. Not everyone would
agree with this but this book shows how important it is to drain your emotions and be
authentic despite everything. This book is one of the most read non-fiction books in
the world after the bible (Diary of Anne Frank The Movie). This book could be
important to use to educate people to be against intolerance and discrimination. In
the case of journaling, this should be a habit that people can apply to their lives to be
more organized, improve self help and get ideas for their future. But the secret is not
just to write to ourselves, it is to improve everyday and imagine we are writing to
future readers.
Bibliography

Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definite Edition, 1952.

Graham, Harris and Hebert, Informing Writing: The benefits of formative

assessment. Vanderbilt University, New York, 2011.

Hiemstra, Uses and benefits of journal writing, San Francisco, 2001

https://roghiemstra.com/journal1.html

Global Indian International School, Why do writing skills matter to the student? Kuala
Lumpur, 2023

DOG (Youtube Channel) Diary of Anne Frank-Final Part with description, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMVd1_snlI

Journey Cloud Blog. 11 benefits to keep a journal or a diary. 2022

https://journey.cloud/journaling-benefits