Bound To Stand Out!

I've been an avid journal writer since I realized during my senior year of high school that unlike people- journals don't talk back!
You can write your deepest fears, share your greatest dreams and talk about whoever you want, and your journal continues to offer unconditional support in the form of a blank page.
Because I'm a creature of habit and suffer from my own self diagnosed OCD in addition to my slight need for perfection, I have used the same black hardcover bound sketch books as my journal for the past ten (or more) years.
My close friends and family know how much I love to write, and because of this, I'm showered with beautiful journals for Christmas, birthdays and special occasions.
As much as I love the sentiment, it strikes me as odd that while people realize that I love a journal, it never occurred to them that I'm always writing in the same black books.
So I have a box full of beautiful leather bound journals in lavish colors. Some are embossed with encouraging quotes. Others have gold lined pages. All of them sit empty, sad that I share my dreams with the same black book day after day. Month after month. Year after year.
Today marks a frighting new day for me...
Call it a whim or call it what it is- I haven't been able to get to the art supply store where I buy my black sketch books, and I've been journal-less for the better part of two weeks.
Desperate to write and create, I decided to go for it!
I picked a cool distressed brown leather journal with gold lined pages that was given to me as a birthday present over four years ago.
I spent all of last year pushing myself to be more adventurous and allow my inner light to shine- and it paid off in amazing ways!
Then it dawned on me: I'm spending so much time and energy fighting to be nothing but Me! I'm working to share all of my special qualities and talents that separate me from everyone else-
But I can't even share my deepest feelings and creativity in anything other than a plain black book, that sits on a shelf along side all of the other boring black books filled with my wildest dreams and thoughts?
How sad.
Here I am striving to be comfortable allowing myself to shine everyday... And I keep my creative thoughts stacked up on a bookshelf in a military like uniformity?!?
So, as difficult as it is for me to break tradition, I'm proud that I just wrote ten pages in my beautiful brown leather journal!
Once this journal is full, it will sit on that bookshelf in line with all the black journals that came before it, and every time I glance over and see it, I will remember that April 8, 2011 was when I fully realized that some things are just born to stand out! So I should stop fighting so hard to fall in line!