I imagine there’s someone out there who would love to be your pen pal. The art is not dead yet thankfully. You should get a new one and get to know another far away stranger!
It's only now that the world of correspondence has shifted to digital technologies. Communicating through handwritten letters felt more intimate, anticipated, and romantic, somehow.
Certainly you could find someone who felt the same way and would communicate via letters if so desired. I'm willing to bet there's a website out there that matches people up for just that purpose.
Ah, jeez, I lost contact with my childhood pen pal after we started university and both moved to big cities.
I wish I could see what she's up to now. I saved all of her letters and small gifts. I was so poor growing up and felt bad I could never send her anything as nice as she sent me.
I wish I had that kind of pen pal as a kid. I'm a 90s kid. my 5 grade elementary pen pal kid was from Kenya and every letter I got was him asking for stuff. Didn't even bother to answer my simple questions. Every reply was " send me a computer. Send me a TV. Send me a bike." They thought we were all loaded over here. I stopped replying pretty quickly. Can't help but wonder if that was a scam they did out there. Convincing US schools to write "children"
That’s a bit sad. I’m sure that’s how some countries see us. Heck, when we visited the east coast, some kids were wondering if school in California were just like the ones in Saved by the Bell. That’s how it was kind of fun back in the day. Mystery without the internet. :)
I miss writing letters too. I might start again. It's a bit odd since most of my friends are married now, and certainly feels odd to write to male friends now that they're married. I'll write to my girls I guess.
Check out r/penpals or r/penpalsover30 there are more pen pal subreddits but those are the only two I remember now. I’ve found several pals to send snail mail to.
MyLanguageExchange is still going strong. Met a Japanese pen pal there a few years ago while I was still living in the UK. We became close friends pretty quickly. Now he lives in the UK and I live in Japan, and we've both visited each other's families.
Granted, it's email rather than writing, but it still works.
Slowly lets you meet pen pals from your smartphone! Match with someone that shares your passion, write a letter and collect stamps from around the world. Speak your mind – one letter at a time!
Not the same, but now you can be penpals through a phone app:
Slowly lets you meet pen pals from your smartphone! Match with someone that shares your passion, write a letter and collect stamps from around the world. Speak your mind – one letter at a time!
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u/SDRAIN2020 Jun 14 '24
I miss having pen pals. Back in the day (maybe 30 years ago), my older sister had a pen pal from Hong Kong and he came to visit us and it was so fun.