The Journey of a Thousand Pages
I’ll admit, before all of this, I was an incredibly always online type of person. I always had the hunger for the best phones so I had the edge in productivity when I managed my business or did daily tasks with my wife. I even had a short period where I hyperfixated on creating the most ergonomic setups for a fast-paced lifestyle; mechanical keyboards, high-end smartphones, gadgets, the whole shebang.
But it was exactly at that point where I realized something; like a switch that just flicked one day while I was working. Life went by too fast. Meals were just sustenance, music was just background noise, and time spent with my loved ones was becoming a forgetful blur.
This? This was not the way I wanted to live. At least, not completely.
I still love being efficient when I work but I didn’t want to forget how precious life is especially with all the moments I have with my wife and family.
Analog.
It was a term I had heard a few times while scouring the internet. Like an ironic twist of fate, the same thing that helped me live a fast-paced lifestyle was what introduced the slowdown I was craving. But what is analog? In a contrarian way to how modern society lives, an analog lifestyle is a conscious effort to live in a physical sense. Instead of your kindle or tablet, you read a physical book. Movies? We go to theaters instead of streaming. Music? A concert or a theater play.
Physical experiences were amazing and the time I spent with myself or with my wife became more meaningful. I didn’t just enjoy it, I relished every little detail down to the notes played by an instrument or the moments when my wife’s lips would curl into a smile.
It was then that I discovered a way to tie it all together.
Memories will fade, especially as we grow older. I wanted a way to remember these experiences or somehow make them timeless. Carl Sagan once said “One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. To read is to voyage through time.”
I glanced around in my room and remembered that I was surrounded by books. These books were like peeks into the lives of the many authors who wrote them. I thought maybe, I could write my life like a book. Perhaps I could immortalize my life, not just for myself, but for my children and those that would come after.
I started by writing on pieces of paper then stashing them so I could collate them later. But the process was fragile, losing these memories was easy and the method was so bland. One random day, I stumbled upon a beautiful piece of stationery that felt timeless even while it was new. Its cover was made of camel-colored cowhide leather and was sealed by a brown elastic strap. Inside was a notebook insert that was made of high-quality Midori MD paper.
I asked the shop attendant what it was. “A Traveler’s Notebook” she said while picking up the various inserts I could use to customize the notebook as I saw fit. My eyes lit up as she spoke, the soft texture of the leather cool in my hand as I further examined the notebook and its many inserts. It took the attendant barely any time to get me to bring the Traveler’s Notebook home with a few inserts to boot.
Fast-forward to today, this camel Traveler’s Notebook barely leaves my side. This notebook is now a piece of me that has held many of my life’s greatest, and even lowest, points. It is part of my daily routine in a conscious effort to make every moment meaningful and memorable.
For now, this is how the story closes. I'll tell all of you more soon; a little online glimpse of what my notebook holds.
‘Till then,
