At some point in your life, you’re going to look back at yourself and see how far you’ve come.

 I remember stumbling upon a social media post I made in 2011 and suffering from an overdose of embarrassment. I couldn’t believe how much I had changed without realizing it. It felt like I was looking back at a different person.

Around that same time, a student of mine mentioned how she would one day live in South Korea. I was familiar with her obsession with Korean dramas and music, so it came as no surprise when she told me that. As someone who comes from a different part of the world, I am familiar with how the media’s portrayal of a certain country and culture can be heavily skewed.

I didn’t mean to belittle her desire to live somewhere she thought she’d like, but in my mind, it amused me to think she bought what the media may have sold to her. And thinking about how she would change if she ever moved there, I was reminded of how I had changed without seeing it.

So I spoke to her about it and asked her to do something I am going to ask of you today.

I asked her to maintain a blog, and if she wasn’t too keen on letting the world watch, I suggested she maintain a journal. While I was at it, I asked her to write about how she felt about South Korea on five different occasions: today, a month before she left, when she was in transit, a week after she arrived and, finally, a year after she had lived there.

The point was to be able to go back to your journal one day and see how you’ve grown over the years. It’s beautiful.

We’re surrounded by far too much media — far more than we can efficiently manage. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have turned into mere tools for social relevance and ego boosts.

In a way, content on these mediums depreciates fast. How many people care about your fake self from two years ago? A journal entry, on the other hand, is far more honest than your glamorous Facebook profile will ever be.

So sit down, and write about today. You’ll treasure it in the years to come.