“My most deepest desire: to be a writer!” My thirteen-year-old self wrote this wish in my brand new diary, a five-subject notebook, narrow-ruled. “The only thing that I don’t have is stamina.”

Like a runner training for a marathon, I started my journal to work on my so-called stamina. I didn’t write every day. Sometimes months went by and I wrote nothing. But that journal spanned 5 years. And while I probably improved as a writer, more importantly, I don’t think I would’ve survived my adolescence without it.

I was inspired, like many others, by Anne Frank. On page two of her famous diary, she wrote:

“I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.”

People who journal aren’t necessarily writers (although there’s no better way to find out). They are people who crave a sounding board, an outlet for their undiscovered thoughts and ideas. They are people who seek their own secrets.

CocoonJournal.org is an effort to encourage students of all ages to write in journals. It is an homage to my hero, Anne Frank. And it is a secret handshake to anyone else whose “most deepest desire” is to write.

Please send us journals, or contact us if you’d like to volunteer. We’d love to have you on board.

Me, back in my teenage journal-writing days, with my cousin Evan