It is a great source of dismay for me that snail mail is a dying art. I have always loved getting any kind of mail from friends and family members, and spent a good portion of my summer sending out postcards from my hometown to everyone who gave me their address.
There’s an undeniable joy that comes from getting a letter addressed to you in the mail. Be it a handwritten note or a location postcard, knowing that someone went out of their way to mail something to me makes me feel loved in a way that text messages can’t quite rival. Especially for long-distance friends, seeing their handwriting always comforts me and makes me smile.
Tammy Howell is an avid snail mail sender from Alabama. She has always loved writing and sending letters. When she was in school her teacher paired her with a penpal in Finland, and she’s been hooked ever since.
“I love to send and receive snail mail,” she said. “I feel as if it is more personal than just a text or chat message. It is a tangible memory that you can hold on to. I still have letters from my friends when we were teens. It was a fun addition to a recent school reunion to take and share what we were thinking then.”
Tiffany Little, a snail mail sender also from Alabama, loves improving the lives of others with mail she sends, even just in little ways.
“I take a lot of pleasure in sending out mail knowing that it will make someone smile when they get it,” she said. “It has improved my life because the best way to be happy is to help others be happy.”
Howell has been unable to work for the last two years. She was working as a hairdresser and cosmetology instructor, and going from two very social positions to being homebound came as a major shock. She then discovered that there are numerous online communities dedicated to matching users to other users in order to exchange mail.
“Being able to communicate with people all around the world who are like-minded and in similar situations has been so important for me,” she said. “It has allowed me to be able to have a part of my life back that I terribly missed. It allows me to not only have friends to talk to but it also allows me to be a listening ear, and a smile if they are sad.”
Many, such as Little, take the art of designing and sending cards very seriously, especially amongst online communities.
“I started with the basics,” said Little. “Ordered tons of postcards, then I started to get interested in card making because other people’s handmade cards were inspiring. I still have a lot to learn.”
Howell feels that the world would benefit from sending more snail mail.
“It is a wonderful form of expression,” she said. “Writing feelings and emotions down to paper is freeing. It is nice to know that in a world where everything is rush, rush, rush, someone took the time to sit and personally take time to do something just for you.”