You might think I’m crazy.
22 years old and a postcard advocate – who are you, Tim?? We have social media and phone calls and zoom – who in their right mind would write a postcard?
Me. I’ll write postcards.
Maybe I’m not in my right mind. That is well within the realm of possibilities.
But even if that’s the case, postcard writing has objective differences to social media and modern communication that anyone can agree to. My job is to convince you that these are good differences, and that if you dip your toe back into postcard writing, you might even end up enjoying the practice, like me.
Slow down – for once!
There’s no doubt that physical mail is slower than electronic correspondence. Even if you’re writing to somebody in the same city, it can take a day to write the card and drop it off at the Post Office, and at least another day for the Post to process it and then deliver it. Add an extra day if your recipient lives in another city, and at least a week if you’re mailing overseas.
How on earth could this be a good thing?
For starters, our rapid pace of living today has been shown many times over to be detrimental to our mental health. I’ve even felt the toll of it on my physical health. So often, our minds are preoccupied with what comes next that we miss what is happening right now. We focus on progressing and forget about living.
Writing postcards is a wonderful way to combat the ‘rat race’. Writing requires patience and a higher level of engagement in our task than a simple quick text. Sending requires even more patience. And then you still have to wait for a reply.
All of these steps – writing, sending, waiting – all take place out of the rapid pace of our society. They teach us to be patient, to enjoy the actual task we are involved in and to notice. One of those things you might notice is your own handwriting.
How bad is your handwriting?
When I wrote my first postcard, I was frustrated that I kept smudging the ink of my pen, causing the words to become illegible. But if I paused to look at the rest of my unsmudged words, I would have noticed that some of those were illegible too. My handwriting downright sucked.
Postcards force you to improve your handwriting. What’s the point of writing to someone if they don’t understand what you’re saying? Here is a perfect example of something we undervalue today. Neat and clear handwriting is useful in Year 4, when you get your pen license. After that, it becomes much less useful, as technology becomes our main source of writing. While many people see this as a win, I feel as though a part of us dies if we never write pen to paper anymore.
Handwriting, like a person’s voice, is uniquely their own.
– Victor Hugo
Not only is handwriting a wonderful way of learning and forming new brain connections (which, by the way, has repeatedly been shown by scientists to trump technology in effectiveness in study), but handwriting is an expression of your truest, most authentic self.
Your handwriting style is unique to you. Nobody else has those random flicks you tend to have on certain letters. Nobody can replicate your style and your tone as you write. You can choose the size of each letter, the spacing – everything. This isn’t replicable on a computer software, for only you are capable of the little errors and the lovely improvised sections of your handwriting. Only you are capable of showcasing part of your journey and personality through your writing. Victor Hugo famously wrote “Handwriting, like a person’s voice, is uniquely their own.” What a treasure it is to share this with someone through a postcard!
Another curious aspect of postcards is their uncopyable nature. Nobody will write the exact same postcard as you, ever again. Your handwriting, your personal voice in the writing, and the selection of image on the front all mark it as a uniquely you letter. Doesn’t this make it more precious to send and receive?
Show off where you’ve been to
One of the coolest things about postcards is that they all tell a bit of a story. Whether they have pictures of famous landmarks, native flora or fauna of the local region, or display a famous artwork of a local artist, each postcard that you own says “I’ve been here and immersed myself in the culture in this place”.
Not only can you show your recipients some obscure places in the world, captured in the postcard cover, you have the opportunity to share a little about it and invite the person reading it into your journey. I always write a line or two to explain why the cover of the postcard is significant to me or them. It’s a great way to avoid excessively using social media to keep people involved in your travels, and a fantastic method of connecting people who live far away to the place where you live or are visiting.
Just you wait until you get something back.
I dread checking the mailbox these days. It’s usually a late bill, a piece of paperwork, or someone who used to live at my address
It’s never a personal piece of correspondence written to entertain and connect me with another human being. Writing postcards changes that.
Receiving a postcard is like fan mail. Not that I get fan mail, but I can imagine what it would feel like to receive it. A postcard in the mailbox is evidence that someone cares that much about me that they’ll write to me the slow way, knowing that our connection doesn’t depend on responding within 24 hours. There’s no leaving me on read and I don’t have to worry about the urgency of the information.
Receiving a postcard brings me a distinct feel-good feeling, and makes me feel connected to the sender in a way that is mightily different to receiving a text message or email.
So if you send someone a postcard, you are inviting them to respond in a like manner. You say “I care about you, but I value a connection that doesn’t merely serve my interests, or serve society’s pace” and you share yourself in a way that is patient. People respect and admire this, wishing they too could do the same. Perhaps some will join you. Perhaps you might make a pen pal or two out of the endeavour.
If all else fails… you have a cool new room decoration
Here’s a picture of one of the walls in my room. I’ve covered it with fascinating postcards from my own travels, and it now serves as a reminder of the great memories I’ve made from traveling to these places. You might recognise some of the better known places I’ve been to (Monaco, Bordeaux) and stop and wonder at some of the lesser known regions (Soria, Detmold). Each time I see the postcards, I remember the interesting humans I met in those places and I consider sending them a card.
Have I convinced you? If so, don’t hesitate – grab a postcard from your nearest post office and write one to a friend today!
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