Friday, July 24, 2009

Snail Mail

I'm a part of an online community called bookmooch.com. This community works as a book exchange. In the very beginning I mailed out about 50 books to places all around the US and the world and so have been reaping the benefits of having books that I would like to read being mailed to me.

It's great to receive snail mail when it's not spam or bills. There is excitement in seeing a package come and knowing that when you open it there is a book or something you ordered waiting for you. There is even more excitement when you receive a letter addressed to you and you were not expecting it.

When I first moved to the US I would write letters to my friends in Guyana. We would correspond that way until I got hooked on email and slowly stopped writing. I'm not very good with keeping in contact with people. It's not that I don't want to keep in contact with people, it's just that I never found (or some say made) the time to sit and write letters. Now, years later I look back and wonder about how those people are doing. Some have emails, some are on Facebook and other social networks, but there is something about looking at those old letters that really make me nostalgic.

Email has the advantage of being instant. In an instance you know you've sent a mail. In an instance you know the person has received it. In an instance they can chose to respond, or chose to ignore and life goes on. With snail mail you have to buy stamps, take time to write something out and post it. You have to wait a few days - or weeks - for the person to receive it. You hope that they received it and will respond and the process that would take you a day or less via email turns into a weeks and months via snail mail. Yet, knowing that a person sat down, wrote, purchased postage and mailed the letter kind of makes me feel special, as though they have taken the time out from their life for me.

When I go on vacation to a foreign country, one of the things I like to do is get some postcards and write notes to my friends at home. It's always a bit of an adventure finding a post office in a foreign land and figuring out the postal system, especially when you do not speak the language! The friends that receive the postcards usually respond positively to them, and so it has become a tradition with me.

I think I'm going to start another tradition, I think I'm going to send things snail mail again. To write letters and cards to my friends - just because - and send it through the post. We'll see how long that happens.

3 comments:

  1. hey u! Happy Belated Belated Birthday! miss ya! i can relate bout the writing & mailing out letters and cards. just an fyi, buy Forever Stamps- that way if the postage goes up again, you don't have to be the 1 cents and 2 cents stamps. Denise

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  2. *cough* I'd love to get something from you *hint* Hahaha :P

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  3. @Addy - hehe ... that's a good idea =D

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