The Lost Art of Letter Writing

I love to write letters. I love to send notes and cards and postcards. I often send them for no reason at all. I always send Christmas cards. I always have two sets. One is of the more traditional variety that I send to most people and then there is the second set that are obnoxiously funny that I send to a select few. However, every year I find fewer and fewer Christmas cards in my mailbox. I guess with social media and email many people don't feel sending actual cards is necessary. I guess people figure a general Merry Christmas! post on Facebook covers it. It is too bad, because I would wager people still enjoy receiving a card or letter among the bills and junk mail that they receive.

Because I enjoy letter writing and would enjoy receiving some letters as well, I set out to find some good old fashioned pen pals. Once, a few years ago I tried a couple of online pen pal sites. Meaning you just sent messages through the site. It was most definitely not the same and unfortunately some people on there seemed to view it as a dating site. It was more difficult than I though it would be at first to find pen pals. One person rejected me because she had enough pen pals. I was bummed because she had a guinea pig sanctuary. Really. But, I digress. One of the first groups I joined was the Letter Writers Alliance. I like them because they have various things about letter writing in addition to finding pen pals. But, I was in search of pen pals and so I asked to be matched. They match you according to interests. You are given a name and address and someone else is given your info. I was so excited when I received the information for the person I was to write. She lives in Canada. Unfortunately, she never wrote me back. I didn't hear from the person that had my name either. I asked to be matched again and this time it was a score. I have received a letter from the person I sent to and someone that had my info sent me one.

While waiting for this I joined two other sites. Swap-bot and Postcrossing. Swap-bot has all kinds of things to swap via mail. I have mostly done postcard swaps so far. Some you just write a little note, some you write a quote, it all depends on the swap and there are a ton of them. I have also done a Pinterest swap on there and am currently doing a note card swap. If you are into mail art then this is a site for you. You can also swap items. It is worth checking out. Postcrossing is a bit different in that it is primarily international and is postcards. You check that you want to send a post card and it gives you an id number to put at the top of your postcard and then the address of the person you are to send to. Once, it has reached it's destination the receiver registers it and your name is then given to someone to send you a card. It tracks the miles the card traveled.  I don't do this one as often as I would like because it is $1.20 to send a postcard internationally. I did have one that was national and she asked to be pen pals so I hope to hear from her soon.

I found another pen pal on a site called Pen Pal of the Week. I also found some from finding snail mail or pen pal groups on Facebook. I just sent a letter to someone in England, to someone in Arkansas and to someone in New Jersey. I am waiting to hear from about three others. I love opening my mailbox now. There is something cathartic in talking to someone you have never met.

If you love to write letters and would like to receive some as well, I would recommend checking out some of the sites I have mentioned. Who knows, maybe you will get lucky and find a pen pal that has a guinea pig sanctuary.