Reaching Out

All my life I have loved writing to people. handwritten letters sent via snail mail has always been my specialty, but emails are great too. I love writing letters to people updating them on everything going on in my life and asking questions about their lives, and more than anything I love, love, LOVE getting letters back! There is something about opening your mailbox (or inbox) and finding a letter addressed to you, sent by another living human being. It may sound odd to some people, but the feeling I get when that happens can only be described as JOY.

The problem with being someone who so desperately loves writing/receiving letters is that very few people have the time and/or inclination to write back. So what do you do when the people you have addresses for (physical or digital) don't write back? You find new people to write to, of course. But how? And where???

I was two-weeks-ago years old when I discovered there is a website that is dedicated to just that purpose, aptly named Pen Pal World. www.penpalworld.com
Somebody, somewhere in the world, had a thought one day that (I assume) went something along the lines of
"I wonder if there is a place to go online that is solely for finding people throughout the world to send emails and snail mail to. A place that's not about finding out every single thing you do in your life so it can send advertisements to you (looking at YOU, Facebook). A place that's not about trying to find partners for shady activities or extramarital affairs. A place where people just who want to meet people to write to can go to meet them. No? There's no place on the internet like that? Well fuck it! I'll create that place right now."

Thank you, random person somewhere in the world who created this site for people like me. You are my hero.

In the last week and a half I have established snail mail contact with a woman in Missouri, a dude in Mississippi, a woman in Canada, and a dude in France. I have also been having wonderful email conversations with a Brit living in South Carolina, a dude in New Zealand, a guy in Florida who was paralyzed by a car accident when he was 17 but has a remarkably good attitude about it, a guy in Nigeria, and a lovely woman in Greece who has 7 (!!) kids. It's incredible to find this amount of connection the world over in a matter of days.

I reached a conclusion in my life recently that I would like to share with you now (if there's anyone actually reading this): We, as human beings, are all in this together. We get one life to live, and I believe the only way to live that life fully is to reach out and connect with people in the world around you and at large. A life lived but not shared is barely a life at all, and do you know why? Because we, humanity, are all just stories in the end, and all a person can do is try to make their story (and by extension the stories of those around them) a great one. And a great story that is never shared is a tragedy indeed.