“It’s good for the world for a writer to bear witness, and it’s good for the writer, too. Especially if she can bear witness with love and humor and, despite it all, some fondness for the world, just as it is manifesting, warts and all.” - George Saunders, “A Letter to My Students As We Face the Pandemic” The New Yorker
“So you’re telling me that school was put fully online for the first time? That you were forced to stay at home and you could be arrested for going to the park? ” This is a question you might be asked 20 years from now. What would your answer be? Instead of telling them, why not show them?
That’s the premise behind our Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH) Archival Journals. We want to create a record of this time to share, to help us process what is happening in the world, and to help us reflect on it all. In our CUH Archival Journals will be journal entries submitted by CUH students, faculty, and staff throughout this school year. Once completed, they will be kept in the Chaminade University Archives within the Sullivan Family Library alongside other historic Chaminade University records.
Tai Arakawa, Circulation Supervisor, got the idea for this interactive display from a webinar that contrasted responses from epidemics years ago to today. Without the journals of the past those lessons would be lost and cultural patterns, both good and bad, would be forgotten. That’s why a journal for the University is important. “It will provide a record of how we as a university community are responding to the events that are happening here and abroad,” says Tai, whether it be to COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, or economic struggles.
Journaling not only creates quality history but it can also improve your mental health. “Journaling in general is a good way to relieve stress.” Tai mentions, “It allows people to work through and order their thoughts as they put it down on paper. It’s a relatively cheap and easy method of self-care, and people are welcome to write multiple entries in the journals.”
Student ‘Aulani Oka posing at the selfie station next to the journals.
Submissions are open-ended questions that encourage members of the CUH ʻohana to respond to via pictures, poems, or other artifacts. If you’re not sure what to submit there are several prompts to choose from. The staff at Sullivan Family Library encourages all CUH students, faculty, and staff to leave your thoughts, reflections, and vents in this journal and leave a part of themselves in history.
You can submit your journal entries at the Sullivan Family Library, email them to circulation@chaminade.edu, or use the Google Form linked here
Please only share things that you are comfortable with other people seeing. Your name and other personal information is optional. The submissions we collect will become a permanent part of the University Archives and will be available for research. If you include other people in your submission, please make sure they are aware that the material will be archived and available to the general public. We’ll ask you for submission of supporting documentation regarding permission.
Submitted by Elijah A., Student Employee at the Sullivan Family Library
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