The goal of this research was to describe, in rich detail, the personal journal writing experience and to discern elements that promote and support introspective journaling. Introspective journaling precipitates an emotional, and often therapeutic, response. Although many qualitative studies on various aspects of journaling exist, none that I found have addressed the experience of the daily journaling process. This qualitative study of the daily journaling experience of five high school students sought to answer this key research question: What is the writing experience of high school students engaged in a 4-week daily journal writing workshop? Using purposeful sampling process, I selected five high school students whose writings demonstrated a willingness and an ability to engage in introspective writing. Introspective and reflective student journals, my own observation notes and memos, and student open forum discussions and interviews constituted the primary data sources. Data analysis included reading journals and highlighting phrases and passages in journal entries that were indicative of participant emotions, attitudes, reactions, and responses within the writing experience; transcribing and highlighting key responses in interviews, in order to apprehend each participant’s insights into the writing experience; making memos; then coding all data to identify emerging themes and patterns. The five themes that emerged from the data were: writing as therapy; the impact of prompts; the importance of the interested listener; the influence of the writing environment; and the writing group as family. Students reported experiencing moments of epiphany and/or catharsis through writing.