two hundered and sixty one letters later...

In twelve years with countless pen-pals and friends, I have received 261 letters.

Granted, three or four of those are probably postcards, but I counted everything that's been from friends or pen-pals, not including the postcrossing postcards that I've received. But I'm pretty sure I've sent off more than that because I've always been one to send more than just a reply, adding on little notes or postcards as well.

Now, this is not to brag or anything, in fact I'm pretty sure others have received more than that in an even shorter amount of time, but as to get a final count of all the joy and happiness that has landed in 5 different mailboxes the past twelve years. For a long time I have wanted to count up all the little lovely postmarked envelopes friends have sent me; don't know why, no interesting or philosophical reason behind it, just thought it'd be neat to have a count, haha.

Up until a year or two ago, I never really thought that letter-writing was a lost art or that no one cared too much about mail anymore. Probably because it has always been a means of communication with friends and family since I was seven years old. When I lived in Ohio I wrote little letters to my friends who lived across town and ever since meeting/knowing them I've always thought my last name was uber-boring. I have a pretty simple last name and both of them have names that I've never heard any other time in my life; Steckel and Radigan. How awesome are those last names? Seriously, the only thing I love about my simplistic name is that I meet a lot of people with the same first and middle name as me and one of my best friends has the same first and middle name as myself. (But enough silly ranting on my name, we can discuss that later...)

Anyway...I'm glad that letter-writing and the joy of seeing the mail-man pull up to my mailbox was instilled into me at a very young age; I think that's the perfect time to get into it, when it's just writing a simple note and there's no big fuss or rush over it. Starting young keeps it happy and exciting and less of the voices in your head saying 'There's eight letters over there waiting to be replied to, why are you watching a movie?!!'. Right around fifteen or sixteen I kind of took a break from letter-writing and didn't start back up until I moved to Florida in August of 2008. Kind of like taking that unexpected break with a companion just to try out some other, new things, but you know you'll reunite eventually. ;]

Well, enough chit-chat! Let's get to the good stuff...


I posted some photos of recent outgoings of letters/notes on my personal blog a week or so ago, and here's the rest of what went out the past week:







Another post featuring incoming mail will be posted VERY soon!

May your stamps always be hand-canceled,
- L