Hey lovelies! I hope everyone's been having a fantastic week :) What have you all been up to? For today's post I thought I'd write about one of my hobbies. I have been writing to penpals now since I was around 14 years old and I absolutely love it. I wanted to share why, for anyone who's curious about getting involved in the hobby, and for those of you who are just interested to learn what it's all about. I hope you enjoy reading!
There were so many reasons why I was first interested in looking for a penpal all those years ago. Mostly it was because of my interest in other cultures, in the customs and traditions of people all over the world. I loved and still love foreign languages and am fascinated by new places. Back in my early teens, I wanted to learn about what life was like for someone else in another place, partly due to curiosity but also because I wanted a glimpse outside of my own everyday life, which I didn't enjoy much at all (I want to keep this post cheerful though so I won't get into why that was today). I enjoyed discovering what was the same for other people my age across the globe, and of course what was different. It was a lovely, and pretty exciting, experience getting to read all about their lives: their school life, their interests, about their hometown. Answering questions about my own hometown, and about my life in general, made me focus on the positive aspects that I did like, and well that made me feel not so bad about things. It was helpful that I was able to just write about all of the things I enjoyed about my life :)
Another reason why I was originally drawn to snailmail was down to my obsession with two countries in particular. I had always been in love with Japan, ever since I was very young and started watching anime. I adored everything about Japanese culture and I was attempting to learn the Japanese language too, so I longed to find a friend who lived there. One of my first ever penpals was from Japan and it was wonderful experience writing to her! I still have the plushies that she sent me over 10 years ago ♥
The other country that I dreamt of visiting and was a little captivated by was Finland. My love for this country was caused by their alternative musicians! I was just 11, maybe even 10, when a song came on a charts music channel that I was just wowed by! This song was In The Shadows by The Rasmus... anyone else remember this song? Before then, I'd never really been exposed to much rock music and thanks to the voice and style of Lauri Ylonen and his awesome bandmates thus began my journey of self discovery. That sounds so cheesy haha! But honestly, I found myself in the lyrics of rock and metal songs, they allowed me to express myself and brought so many amazing people into my life (writing this is super nostalgic! It's bringing back all sorts of memories). Anyhow, after discovering The Rasmus, I found Hanoi Rocks & HIM, thanks to my first Finnish penpal. I also learnt more about this amazing country that made me just love it even more. The forests and lakes there though! They are breath-taking!
A further reason why I wanted to find a penpal was because of my love for hand-written letters. As a young teen, I obviously didn't get any mail of my own and so I wanted some! I loved pretty stamps and the excitement of not knowing what envelope my letters would come in or what kind of paper they'd be written on. It was so fun waiting for the postman to arrive each day to see if they had anything for me! For years before I started snailmailing, I would always buy letter sets whenever I went on a day trip somewhere. For some reason, I'd only ever see pretty letter sets at zoo gift shops and such! I'm not sure why, haha. I am delighted about the fact you can get them all over the place now. Maybe I just never went to the right stores or something :D Period dramas and historical-based literature have forever been one of my favourite things, and so because of the letter writing that was depicted in these, I was always fascinated by them and dreamt of corresponding with someone by post.
I've ended up focusing most of this post about why I started to write to penpals, but to be honest these are the reasons why I love snailmail :) I love it because of how it gives me an insight into other people's lives in different countries. I will always love hearing about other cultures and the things people get up to abroad. But the main thing I love about snailmail, now as an adult* (*haha, as a 25 year old human that's attempting to adult) is the friendships I've made! I love the intimacy of letter writing, if that even makes sense. It's often easier to write than to speak face-to-face with people, well it certainly is for me that is. I feel that it allows people to become closer, especially if you've been writing to one another for a very long time.
My penpals and I have in a way grown up together, from being teenagers to adults and been writing throughout so many of the important occasions in our lives... going to university, self discovery, moving away from home, and one of my penpals has even gotten married!! I think it's wonderful that we've been able to share these things with each other through our words, through little crafty snippets too, such as photos, leaflets, gifts, etc. It's nice just how well they know me :) I really hope that some day when I've worked on my social anxiety enough, that I can meet them ♥
How adorable is this little cartoon that one of my past penpals sent to me though!?
I hope you've all enjoyed reading though and that you have a lovely weekend :) I have decided to take part in Blogmas so I am going to work very hard to keep up and get a new blog post up everyday of December. Last time I joined in with this blogging challenge was in December 2015, and I'm surprised that I've managed to think of another 30+ ideas that are different haha! Yayy, it's basically Christmas for me now since I ate my first leubkuchen today! It will soon be time to put up all the decorations and listen to Christmas songs and get all festive, and omgosh I'm excited :)
Thankyou for reading!
♥
Have you ever sent a hand written letter?
Do any of you guys snailmail too?
Please write more snail mail posts! I absolutely love snail mail and I have been penpalling for years now. I have penpals from all over the world and it's absolutely great to be able to talk to different people and learn about different cultures!
ReplyDelete