I have a brown, kind-of rusty metal file box filled with letters from my college days. A time before cell phones and when email was still very new and only the rich kids had a pc. No one in college had laptops. Long-distance calls were expensive and rare. My parents actually paid to have a 1-800 number so my frequent calls home weren't so expensive.
This little box of mine is stuffed full of letters from friends and relatives who kept up with me while I was at BYU. I sat down to go through some of the letters and I remembered friends I'd forgotten and hilarious (and not-so-funny) experiences from my college days. Many envelopes are decorated with stickers or drawings. Some handwriting is sloppy and hard to decipher. I even have a 4-leaf clover a high school friend sent me for good luck.
My little box holds the emotions and LIFE of my past. It is filled with love and heartache and sometimes even silly, bathroom humor. It is priceless to me and I treasure its contents.
There's something uniquely special about opening an old envelope and unfolding the stationery and personal writings of a friend. Something invaluable is lost through emails and texts. The care, the love, the trueness of the message is lacking.
I don't hand write very many letters any more. I even subscribe to a card-sending service that literally does that- I type a message and the card is stamped and sent for me. But, as I reflect, I'm not sure I'm okay with this. How personal can a letter really be that comes from a business- even if my words are inside the card? How meaningful?
I never read my old emails because there are always more in my inbox. I don't treasure them. I might star a couple here and there, but usually even the starred ones are forgotten.
Can I fix this? Will my girls feel the excitement of getting mail in a mailbox when they're far from home? I am determined to make it so.
Ahhh, how I LOVE my letters. They still bring me joy, 15 years later. I can't wait to call up some of my friends and remind them of our college-day DRAMA! And I want to thank my Mom for her words of encouragement. Something I'm sure I took for granted back then. I am forever grateful for so many happy memories, preserved in my little brown box.
4 comments:
aww. this makes me want to write/receive more letters. i feel some of this when i get letters from my missionary friends. i will go in with you and re-find this lost art. text messages just don't cut it.
Amen sister! I was actually recently having thoughts along the same line. Paige's best friend since kindergarten moved to California over the summer, and they have been sending each other letters. It has made me remember how exciting it is to receive a personal letter in the mail along with all the junk and bills.......how special you feel when someone takes the time to handwrite you a note and decorate it with special stickers or drawings.......how e-mails get deleted, but letters you tend to keep and re-read over and over.......it is definitely a form of communication that needs to be resurrected!
I still have my box of letters, too! You're right - its a great form of communication and there is definitely something LOST from all those emails!
I have a box like that, too, and it's so fun to read through those now and then! I'm glad our girls are anxious to keep each other's mailboxes active. <3
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