I love letter writing!

by Jennifer Sarkies
(Australia)

I started writing to pen pals in 1994 and even when e-mail became popular, I still preferred to hand write my letters instead of typing them onto a computer.

I have to admit that I have lost some pen pals because I didn’t want to communicate solely by e-mail, but I guess those people weren’t my real friends at all. I enjoy choosing the paper I’m going to use, selecting a sticker to decorate the paper, and then writing my letter by hand. I feel a connection to the person by doing this and it’s the next best thing to communicating to them in person.

On the other hand, e-mail messages seem almost robotic to me and they lack the personal touch. I have found that some people send bulk e-mail messages to everyone in their address book but I prefer to write each letter individually so that I can talk about the content of their letter as well as talk about things I know they are interested in. I write full letters as opposed to some e-mailers who only send brief notes.

I have always enjoyed receiving photos and cards from my friends and it’s just not the same when they are sent electronically. I love displaying cards on my fridge and you can’t do that with an e-card. I have a digital camera now but I would rather get the photos printed professionally and send them with my letters, than e-mail them and make my pen pals print the photos themselves if they wish to.

Communicating by snail mail has always been the preferred option of mine and now I don’t even hand out my e-mail address to pen pals. I’ve received too many bulk e-mail messages in the past and it can get as bad as junk mail. E-mail in my opinion is just too cold and impersonal and I can’t see myself ever communicating to my pen pals solely by e-mail.


I regard my pen pals as my friends because we have shared our lives over a number of years. Some pen pals have stopped writing to me but it’s the ones who have continued that I value the most. Some people are closer as friends than others because they say more in their letters, but I treat them all equally and generally write a similar length of letter to all of my pen pals. I don’t discriminate just because someone writes a short letter.

I am an introverted person and I find it easier to communicate to people by writing everything down rather than talking to people. Snail mail allows one-on-one communication which I have always preferred. I find it difficult especially to talk to people in a group situation and am unable to get a word in because other people are more talkative than I am. Some people talk so much that there are no pauses in the conversation, and then later on they wonder why I haven’t said anything.

I enjoy writing to pen pals because it gives you a great opportunity to get to know people from other parts of the world who you otherwise may never have gotten to know at all. I don’t let the ever rising cost of stamps prevent me from sending letters overseas, it is still so much better than e-mail.