Pen pals are important to me, and I’ve realised that I haven’t actually shared that much about my own pen pal story here, so today I’ll share a little about my life with pen pals.
I love pen palling, and honestly I can’t imagine not doing it. It’s a unique experience as on the one hand it’s a relaxing solitary hobby that gives me a chance to sit down and get creative, and then on the other, it’s connections and friendships and spreading a little happiness.
I’ve had many over the years since I got back into doing this, which was around a decade ago.
I say ‘back into’ as I had pen pals as a child. We were assigned them at school and I enjoyed writing to mine while it lasted.
Later in my teens I had a couple more pen pals I found myself, and I loved those moments when a letter would arrive for me.
Then, around ten years ago now, I stumbled across a pen pal match that I spotted on Twitter and so the hobby was reborn.
When you pen pal for a decade, you do see lots of friendships come and go. Some people love the idea of writing but then life changes and they don’t have the time for it any more. Sometimes you’ll only exchange one or two letters and it drops. Some people simply aren’t quite a good match.
Over the years, many pen pals have dropped off along the way but I still valued their friendships while they lasted. It’s all part and parcel of this hobby, I think, so don’t be put off if this happens to you. It’s normal, but if you enjoy it, keep on looking for pen pals and writing those letters.
I have a lovely mix of UK and international friends. I think off the top of my head at the moment I regularly write to around 15 people, all around the world. There are then a couple of other people that occasionally pop into my mailbox, always a lovely surprise.
Along with writing to my pen pals, I love writing to my Patreons every month, yet another chance to settle down, slow down, and mess about with pretty stationery.
Pen palling means something to me. It’s my chance to be creative, it’s a way to indulge my love of stationery, I know that sending and receiving happy mail brightens days, and most importantly, I treasure these friendships.
I realise that it’s hardly a surprise that I enjoy having pen pals. I do share plenty of pen pal content here! There’s a reason for that too.
I know how happy it made me when I stumbled across a pen pal group all those years ago.
I want to inspire others to put pen to paper and join the snail mail revolution, even if they’ve never written a letter before in their lives.
There’s no age limit on this hobby, there’s no pre-existing requirements to give it a go, anyone can choose to start pen palling today.
This is a part of my life that makes me happy, so I like to play a part in passing on that happiness and inspire others to pen pal .
In our digital age, snail mail could become a lost art which seems a real shame, don’t you think?
How about you? Do you have pen pals?
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