Maybe not the usually topic for this community, but there is paper and pen involved, so close enough?
Basically I decided on a whim to send a handwritten letter to a friend of mine. I don’t think I ever did that before. I didn’t even really know what to say, so it’s just a few lines long. But nevertheless, I put in an envelope, got stamps and now it’s on its way.
Well, what can I say. Now, I am sitting here like a little kid before Christmas waiting for the letter to arrive!
We basically text everyday and I did not tell her, so it will be a surprise. I am really exited for her reaction.
I already am thinking about sending a postcard to another friend. Just because. It just seems like such an easy way to give out a little happiness to someone? And I really enjoyed sitting down and taking time to craft the letter. Even if I struggled to come up with things to say, it feels so different to sending text messages or e-mails that arrive instantly.
Anyway, this also got me curious. Do some of you guys still send out handwritten letters? Or is it something you consider a thing of the past?
I have two penpals and both love colorful paper. I also love sending postcards. My list of friends who get postcards from me on vacation has become pretty long.
Oh yes, there is some really nice paper out there and decorating the letter is also a lot of fun!
Did you know your penpals before and you started to write letters or did you look for a penpal and found them that way?
No, I specifically looked for penpals. I met my oldest penpal on a website for finding penpals in 2007. We have since met pretty often and even lived in the same city for a while by chance. The other penpal contacted me after I wrote my address in a friendship book.
2007? Oh wow, that’s been a while. So cool that you clicked so well and you are still in contact and even met. Sounds great!
I love sending and receiving handwritten letters! I don’t do it enough. Thank you for the reminder that handwritten mail is generally happy mail.
Send that happiness :)
100% close enough! It’s fun to have you here with us!
\(^·^)/~I’ll need to update the sidebar I think~I think it’s fun to send stuff by post. I have started to send Christmas cards to some friends and family. I’d love to send more but it has gotten really expensive :c
I’ve been thinking on and off about sending letters but as you, don’t know what to write. It also feels a bit… silly? I don’t know if that is the correct word. When I can just send a text. I’d like to send pressed flowers and leafs. Maybe some cool tag/flyer/stuff or a pretty, flat rock.
I’m glad you sent that letter!
Oh I love the idea of sending pressed flowers or little things. It’s like little tokens. I would totally love to receive something like that from a friend or family member.
If you are consider doing it already, totally go for it!
And regarding the content of the letter. As I already said in a different comment: i basically wrote about how I don’t know what to write. I was also feeling silly and just leaned into it. It was just a short message…barely filling a A5 page.
And if you decide to as a little something like the presses flower, you can write about that, too.I’ll keep this in mind! We have mostly snow and ice here in Sweden right now, so not very fun haha.
I do have a bunch of letters already, so I just need to stuff them :D
Some of my favourite letters were silly. I have letters from old girlfriends that they wrote during boring high school classes 30 years ago. Many of the letters never even get to a point - some are just slice of life/stream of consciousness. The letters become artifacts, though: little time capsules that contain a feeling, an idea, a memory. I have letters from people who are long gone, but when I read the lines I hear the voices of my loved ones as though they were in the room.
oh, this is both lovely and sad to read. Thank you for sharing. I like the idea of them being little time capsules.
I had a close friend that was in prison for a little while and I wrote letters to him. The challenging part for me was by the time I received his reply I didn’t remember what exactly I had sent. I could get the gist from what he replied but it was a different experience from being able to scroll up in a text message thread or email.
I think sending a letter to a friend is a good idea and I hope they enjoy your letter!
Oh, I didn’t even considered that I would forget what I have written. But totally makes sense, especially if it starts to be more like a conversation with back and forth!
Did you keep up writing letters to each other or did you stop once you were able to use different communication again?
My modern solution is to photograph my letter before I send it.
It’s not something I’ve ever done but mostly because it feels like I don’t have anything important enough to say in a letter.
Also my hand writing is really bad unless I really concentrate. I probably just need to practice.
Maybe it’ll happen one day.
Oh, I totally relate to that. If someone had asked me last week what I think about handwritten letters, I would have just shrugged and said “not for me”.
I mostly ended up writing about how I do not really know what to write, honestly. And I printed out a meme which I put with the letter. So it was not exactly elaborated. But it’s still fun ^^
"Dear Person whom this letter is for,
This is a letter I’m writing to you to tell you that I’m not very good at writing letters. Here is a picture of a cat that I printed and glued to this letter.
Thank you for reading my letter,
FJ"
Honestly if I got that letter I would laugh. :D So that’s pretty neat.
Edit: I would laugh because I’d like the letter. Not because it would be a bad letter.
That’s exactly the vibe I was going for xD
I might even have been giggeling while writing that letter…
The beauty of a letter is that it doesn’t have to be important. It just has to be you. If I have no events to relate, I just talk about a show I liked (or hated), a funny story about a friend, etc. Sometimes I just reminisce - my brother really liked hearing about some things I remembered from when we were kids. You would be surprised at how much of your personality pokes out of 1-2 narrative paragraphs.
Yes, I send hand-written letters! I started sending selected friends and family posted letters as an experiment this year. I have sort of lost touch with many people since I moved in 2018; the pandemic didn’t help.
I even wrote in the letters that I didn’t expect a reply because, you know, who has time? To my surprise, almost everyone responded!
That’s so cool and I love how you got so many repsonses back!
In a way a letter feels less daunting. Especially if some times passed since you last had contact with a person. At least to me , a text message feels more urgent and I feel like I have to reply as fast as possible. But with a letter…you can take your time!
It makes me happy to see your experiment went so well :)
