Letter Writing for the Person Who's Bad at Keeping in Touch

Letter writing can be the perfect mode of communication for someone as bad as I at staying in touch. I have been lucky enough to meet some amazingly interesting people over the course of my life, but it so happens that they don't live anywhere near me. Email is an alright mode of communication for quick messages that are timely or lacking depth, but there is something lacking about the connection when you sit down in front of a computer screen and try to connect with someone far away. I probably used more email than physical letter writing for my correspondences for a long time anyways, until I was spending six months studying in Prague, Czech Republic and my room was broken into while I was showering.

I found myself lacking a computer and any steady access to the internet with which I could communicate with friends back home. Calling cards were available, but I usually reserved those for family and friends on an occasional basis when I was getting really homesick. Instead of losing touch with people back home I dug out my address book which I had brought along just in case and started writing letters and short postcards to people back home. Every single person who gave me their address at one point or another got a letter in some form from me. I found that I was becoming more social through this seemingly obsolete form of communication than I was with email in the first place. Also, what I was saying in the letters were thoughts that I truly took the time to mull over before putting them on paper. I had a lot going on in my life and I wanted to give people and update as much as possible in the limited amount of writing space I had.

Letter writing, instead of e-mail and instant messaging is a unique and more thoughtful way to develop and maintain friendships that otherwise, due to schedule or distance constraints, would suffer from not being dependant on talking on the phone, online or regular face-to-face contact. The delay between the letters being written and sent gives time for both parties to be anxious for their coming letter and think about what they'll write next. Letter writing is just another way of appreciating a friendship that otherwise may have faded into "oh, I never see that person anymore," or "since he/she moved away I find it too hard to see them."

My suggestion is take that address book that you probably have for sending "Thank You" and "Get Well" cards and write up some letters to people you haven't spoken to in a while. I guarantee you will feel better about your efforts in trying to keep the friendship going and you may spark an entirely new thread of memorable conversations without even having to turn on your computer.