What Happened to My Pen Pal?

Being on the other side of the world away from friends and family has me thinking about writing and how we used to keep in touch before the age of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

I remember hearing an interesting story on the radio before we left about two women, probably in their late 50s, who had been pen pals since 1960. Lifelong pen pals, NPR called them. The two met over the written word when they were in fifth grade. Since then, they've written at least one letter to each other every year and they finally met earlier this year, after 51 years of being, how do you say, virtual friends?

NPR interviewed both women for the story (listen and read the transcript here) and I couldn't help but think of the one or two childhood pen pals that I kept for short periods of time. They were mostly girls I met at summer camp, and the letters eventually fizzled once school started up again.

It seems like it would almost be impossible to have a pure pen pal these days--someone you send hand-written letters to and then receive the same thing back. Our addictions to check and respond to tweets and Facebook updates sort of removes the anticipation of waiting for a letter or having to formulate a long, hand-written response.

I guess e-mail pen pals are still a thing. I know I have a few people I exchange frequent e-mails with and I usually take some time to respond. I guess I just miss the actual writing part. So, how can I get back into the habit? Buy some beautiful new stationary, of course.

Perhaps something monogrammed?

[Rifle Paper Co.]

Do you still write letters? Do you like receiving letters in the mail? Send me an e-mail with your address and maybe I'll send you a postcard with a nice note, all the way from Australia and/or New Zealand!