I have not destroyed any of my journals, but I have destroyed many of the extensive plans I’ve made in some of these journals. Plans that were a quick fix for a happier future away from the life I was leading at the time. Some of these include:

Opening a vintage shop

Traveling through Thailand for several months

Studying abroad in China

Then India

Then Budapest

Becoming a fashion designer

Becoming a writer

Becoming a photographer

Moving to New York

The important thing I’ve taken out of making (and subsequently destroying) all these plans is my desire not to settle for a life that excludes creativity or adventure.

At present I am living in San Francisco and outside of my day job of managing two coffee shops, planning probably the most challenging endeavors to date: a long duration art performance piece based on Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills. I will be chronicling my piece, Unstills, at the website www.unstills.wordpress.com and will also be writing some pieces about it for My Destroyed Journals.

It seems natural to begin this dialog by discussing the title of this project and how it fits in with its overall objective.

The simple/literal story is as follows: Over a period of 12 years I had amassed a catalog of 10 journals that I had religiously kept since the age of 13. At the age of 25 I threw them all away.

The metaphorical implications of this act: When I was maintaining these pages, I was convinced that I would benefit somehow by every once in a while returning to them. As my future self I would have the ability to see where things went wrong or how I would have done things differently. This tangible change of mind meant something to me, it felt like progress.

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