Writing letters is making a definite comeback in society. As technology advances, the art of letterwriting seems to wither away. It’s understandable in a way – social media has made it easier than ever to contact someone, anywhere in the world. It’s a lot faster. But there’s some advantages to writing that cannot be achieved in other methods of written communication. And there’s a few of us that don’t want to see it wither away. That few of us that seem to be growing in strength and numbers. With several months, weeks and days dedicated to writing, letters are becoming popular again – and for good reasons!
In February, we saw InCoWriMo, which stands for International Correspondence Writing Month (run by the organisers of NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month). But that’s just the beginning. The start of April marked the start of the Write_On challenge. This challenge encourages you to write 30 letters in 30 days but since we’re already started, you could aim to write 12 – one of each of the remaining days. At the very least, aim to write one!
I particularly like that National Stationery Week, here in the UK, also falls in this month. Two major campaigns to get people writing more. I found out about the challenge last year, where I shared over 30 letters you could write, in case you didn’t know who to send them to. This year, I thought I would take a moment to share over 30 reasons why you should write in the first place.
Even now, I can think of many letters that I received that made me smile so much. Just thinking about them has put a smile on my face, whilst I type this and has made me feel so relaxed. It makes me feel loved, just remembering the kindness of my friends. One wrote a letter to me that ended with “now stop smiling, your colleagues will think you’re mad”. It made me so happy because I was grinning like an idiot the whole way through and seeing that showed me how well my friend knew me, it just made me laugh! Another friend sent me a card that said “you are awesome” and she included this adorable little inflatable monkey with the card, that I keep on my desk as a reminder that hardwork and dedication can help me achieve my goals (as that’s what she had written in the card). Whilst another friend surprises me with random letters asking me how I am, how my blog or job is going, if I’ve opened up my etsy store etc… All of the things that she could ask me by text or phone but she thought she’d write to me and I love that. It shows that no matter how far away you may be from your friends, they’ll always carry you with them in their heart.
These letters don’t have to be long. They don’t have to be written on beautiful paper, with beautiful handwriting and beautiful coloured pens. They just need to be written, they just need to be sincere. Imagine the recipient’s smile on the other side and write.