Distracted and Frustrated!

Journal entry....

5-10-2011

Day 23

  I’ve been sort of distracted lately. I’m not quite sure why really. Whenever I try to think about anything in particular my mind starts to drift. I don’t feel very productive when I get like this. I’m falling further behind on my autobiography too. It’s like everything I think about is causing me to think about people and things outside of prison. As much as I enjoy thinking about these things, it’s counterproductive to what I need to be doing to complete this program. This is getting frustrating!

~J.Doe

Overwhelming?

Journal entry...

5-2-2011

Day 15

  Well it’s the start to a new week, but for some reason my early morning motivation was short lived. There are often days that I feel like I took on entirely too much. I’m getting down on myself because I’ve obligated myself to too much writing. Between my autobiography, daily, journals, reaction papers, workbook assignments, letters to my family and friends, and my internet blog, I’m feeling anxiety, failure, and frustration. When I think about it all at once it makes me want to give up sometimes. Not to mention I’ll be starting my employment module tomorrow. What’s next?

(Counselor note – Hopefully your future life! What internet blog?)

(Counselor note – Nice entries. 5/4/11)

~J.Doe

Confused and Frustrated: It’s Named “IF” by Rudyard Kipling

Journal entry...

4-27-2011

Day 10

  I’m quite confused about the real meaning behind this poem we were assigned to write a reaction paper about. It’s named “IF” by Rudyard Kipling. I read the poem nearly twenty times before finally asking my cellmates what they thought. The two that read it both gave me different answers, so I figured it had to be one of those times where there were no wrong answers. Personally I’d like to know what the writer’s meaning was when he wrote it before I would write what my reaction to it was. I decided to wing it anyhow seeing as no one knew for sure what the author meant. I think overall I didn’t do too badly, but I also don’t feel like such a short assignment should be this time consuming. This is a lot of time I could have used to write my autobiography, but I was too frustrated to do that either.

(Counselor Note – So… Do you always need absolutes?) 

~J. Doe