Snail Mail June 6, 2009

In my first semester of school I took a writing class. It was the only class I had that was small and so we had to do that super awkward introduction thing where we say our name, where we’re from and a bunch of other stuff nobody cares about or will ever remember (see also: favorite color, major, favorite hobby, favorite season etc etc etc). This is another one of those exercises which seems like a good idea in theory, but really just sucks in practice. No one listens. Because no one cares. Anyway. So in WRTG 1150, it was…tell us your name and something unique about yourself. Okay go! Can you say stressful? Obviously, I freaked out. But in that deadly silent way that nobody really knows is happening until I just like explode at someone about how dumb of a thing saying what is unique about me is and well you know…

So anyway, let’s get to the point. I decided to tell everyone that what is unique about me is that I like to write letters. Yep, the old school kind. Using real paper and stamps. As a side note, I am proud that I did such good job of letting my nerdness show as soon as possible. But yeah, it was one of those weird things to say. Other people said they liked snowboarding. Ohh, unique. I bet you’re the only person who came to school in Colorado because you like to board. So my professor (who I ended up really liking, by the way and still talk to him now) told me he thought it was great that I write letters because it truly is a lost art. I totally agree.

When my first friend went off to college, I asked her to be my pen pal. I sent her a letter right when she got to school on the east coast and she sent me a reply on the most beautiful stationary. I really had no idea they even created such pretty paper just for writing and suddenly, I felt my lined, college ruled notebook paper was ridiculously inadequate. I went to buy my first box of stationary at Target or something and as more time went by, I had collected a dozen or so different kinds of paper and envelopes. I also started collecting more penpals. I started wrting to anyone and everyone who lived outside of Highlands Ranch, or in one case, in Highlands Ranch. I started writing to my ex boyfriend’s friends in Minnesota, my sister, a couple people at Madison and other people around the country that I knew for one reason or another. And I stepped up my game with the stationary also. I started shopping for it at Papyrus. I asked for it for every birthday/Christmas/graduation/everything ever. I have a huge wicker box at school that holds like 25 pounds and well over $1000 of paper.

But a lot of people find all of this very strange. So I’m going to tell you why it’s epic, if outdated.

• So much more personal than email
• Handwriting can tell you a lot about a person. ie- mood, personality traits etc. When is the last time an email told you that!
• Stationary is awesome. Email is white and very, very boring. Or has cheesy backgrounds that lack real art.
• I once made personalized postage stamps on the internet. They were pictures of me and my friends. Or pictures I took. This was probably the sweetest thing ever.
• Even not personalized stamps are cool. Unless you get the forever once. Those are bells. The bells = lame.
• Letter writing takes much more time than like IM or text or anything like that and is therefore more intimate and means more.
• Mail in general is awesome because then you can send cookies and other lovely things across the country or world.

There you go. This has been my little hail to snail mail and it’s amazingness.

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