Pen-Pals!

Oh, penpals are great. A few months ago I was listening to a news report about a British woman and American man who had been exchanging letters and details about their lives for over 40 years. Think of that!

I think there is something really special about sending and receiving letters, especially if they are handwritten. It's that personal touch that you don't quite get from an e-mail.

 

I'm going to sound old saying this, but I used to have a ton of pen-pals, and it was one of the most helpful things for me, growing up. This was in the days before the internet was around, or widely used. So, being gay and in high school, and feeling very alone, I wondered what to do. I found a book in our school library, about being young and gay, and the publisher had this address you could write to where they'd pair you up with another pen-pal who was also your age and gay, to write to. I think the book was called 'One in Ten'...I felt embarrassed checking it out, but I'm pretty sure our librarian was lesbian. And so I started to write letters to a boy in Iowa; I was living in rural Michigan. We became very good friends, and it was always exciting, waiting for the mail to arrive, and seeing a letter. About 4 years later, after I had met my boyfriend in college, we actually all got to meet, because he was in band, and he was coming to some kind of music even/competition on our campus. It was an amazing to see each other in person, because though those years, though we never 'in love', we'd helped each other a great deal, at points when we felt we were the only ones like that. I guess you could say this was like a totally analog version of Empty Closets.

Then, I also used to write and exchange mixed tapes with various punk rock sorts. I'd place ads in punk-rock magazines/fanzines, which cost maybe $2 to do, saying, "Lonely mohawk boy in the middle of nowhere wants friends and to trade music, likes Joy Division, The Cure, Dead Kennedys, &c.", or some such thing, and I met a ton of other pen-pals that way, some of whom turned out to be gay, bi, or else very open minded and supportive.

I still have many of these letters, and have often thought how much I miss writing them, and how different it was than e-mail, PMs and such...it was certainly a much harder time to meet people in the 80s-90s, but I managed to find ways.

So by all means, write letters. It's fun to go out, get some nice stationary, a fancy pen, sit down, and write. I had a few prize pens I still have, Cross, and A Mont Blanc Fountain Pen, which I got for high school graduation, with a gold nib. It's truly an art, writing letters, and one I hope survives.

Note: I'm not looking for pen-pals here, but just wanted to encourage people who might be. Use caution and common sense, but I think you'll find this gives a feeling of connection that's somehow beyond what the web can provide.

 

I want one!! Our school did a thing where we had penpal in france school but noone took it seriously and i couldnt write and understand french so it didnt work well >.<

They seem fun though and i want one ^^

 

I would have one! Especially if he/she is from a nordic place

 

Sure, I'd like one.

 

well it can't hurt to talk about having a pen pal...we just can't advertise or ask for others

I won't go into details obviously but I loved having mine. Had her for a good four years

to be honest though I don't think my wrist could even handle hand written letters anymore

 

Pen pals are awesome! Handwritten letters just convey things that can't be expressed through internet interactions. I write my friend who's in the Air Force in Texas, and it's fun to include neat little doodles with our letters. It creates a great bond (for us anyway) since we're both creative types and enjoy each others' general nonsense. Because of letters, we've been able to stay in touch when he can't use e-mail or send text messages while he's in BT.

 

I'm pretty sure I couldn't. Certainly I think my handwriting--never good--has gotten worse over the years. Everything I write now is typed, except for really short things (like a note reminding me to get something at the store).

 

Back when I was in high school we had pen pals over in France and we would ex change letters I thought it was great. I wouldn't mind doing it again.

 

Had a bunch as a kid. Still keep in touch with two of them, one of which I consider a very good friend of mine. Writing all those letters sure helped me work on my English! It was far more interesting to write a "composition" that received feedback in a form other than the Red Pen (although it did get copious amounts of that first, courtesy of my mom lol).

 

I love writing letters and receiving written letters. I used to have a pen pal from France when I was younger and we would both help each other out with languages and that was pretty awesome.
Nowadays though, I'd really have to set time aside to do this. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome, but I'm so bad at doing stuff in a timely fashion (well, for personal gain anyways).

 

I have pretty nasty carpal tunnel that needed the surgery and while it improved I waited too long to get the surgery to make a 100% improvement. Grad school was extremely hard for me as it was not unusual to have 10-14 page hand written essay tests for finals and midterms. I remember one day having a ten and then a 14 page essay test in 12 hours. When it was over my wrist was twice the size and I just wanted to die

so one day I'd love to get a pen pal again provided he/she didn't mind typed notes

 

:O Couldn't you get some sort of accommodation for that?! In my school, you'd get a scribe or an oral exam, or *something*... This sounds awful.