For as long as I can remember, getting the mail has been a daily joy. As a little girl, our mail person, Roger, left my brother and me a piece of Bazooka gum (with the comic!) every day with our mail. We would fight and race each other to be the first to the mailbox to retrieve the prize. A day in which a birthday card or special note from a grandparent was in the bundle was an extra delight.
As I grew older, I still enjoyed the daily walk to the mailbox, although, admittedly, with less tenacity than when there had been a piece of bubble gum at the end of the driveway. Holiday greetings, letters, and even the excitement of a new catalog drew me to retrieve the mail each day.
During my first year of college, the daily trip to retrieve my mail felt like an anchor in an otherwise uncertain time. All of my relationships were new, and not yet beyond surface level. I was in a new place, with a new level of independence, and while it was an exciting time, it came with a dose of loneliness that I had not previously experienced.
My closest friend and I had gone to college several hours away from one another. This might have been an easy time to let a friendship fade, but Mary and I had been the best of friends for years, and were committed to staying an important part of each other’s lives, despite the distance and lack of common experience. Mary sent me a piece of mail EVERYDAY my first year of college. She would send a funny article, a card, a handwritten note with her daily musings, and words of encouragement. We navigated homesickness, boyfriends, sorority rush, new friends, academic struggles, and finding our way in the beginnings of adulthood through the mail. On a tough day, the walk to the student union to retrieve my mail in UB Box 5506 would put a spring in my step. Mary’s intentionality during that season changed my life, and ensured that we were lifelong friends. Mary and I haven’t lived in the same place in over twenty years, but our friendship has been constant, in no small part because of the mail!
At Postmark’d Studio, we know that a letter is better and want to make it simple for you to maintain the relationships that matter most to you. Who can you send a letter to today?