postcardx

About three years ago I came across an interesting website called postcardx. It's simply a collection of addresses of people who like to send post to total strangers. The whole thing is a lovely idea. You can search for an address and send something nice to a person you are probably never going to meet. You can add your own address and wait for your postbox to fill up with exciting letters from all over the world. It is a basic concept that works. As the name of the website suggests, most people like to send postcards. In the past I've received postcards from Canada, America and the UK. People also send more imaginative packages filled with dried leaves, tea bags, stickers, maps and so on. The whole concept makes me believe that it is still perhaps possible for people to be generous, altruistic and to be happy making other people happy.

Lots of people on postcardx are also looking for long term penpals. Having a penpal is a wonderful and rewarding experience. The fact that someone makes the effort to write a thoughtful letter about their life, put it in an envelope, seal it, go to the post office, post it makes you feel good. There seems to be a certain satisfaction from keeping a friendship going by post. It's also a great way of gaining an insight into a totally different way of life or perhaps learning a new language. My longest friendship started in March 1997 with a girl from Estonia. Amazingly, we are still in touch and continue writing as much as we can. As we've grown up the content of the letters has gradually changed: from stories about school friends and hobbies, to our first boyfriends and first jobs and now to our careers, university life and living away from home.

I've already exchanged a number of letters with a girl from Lithuania who found my address on postcardx. By some stoke of luck we were actually able to meet up this summer because I was going to Lithuania for my holidays. It may seem a bit strange to meet someone you only know through letters, but if you take the plunge you can find out about new ideas and see things from different perspectives.

Created: 2007-09-13 21:12, Tags: friends, life, lithuania

Comments

Archatas 2007-09-15 19:27

A very interesting idea. I would like to enter my own address into the same database as well, but I don't feel very comfortable with the fact that my address will be findable by anyone in the web. Perhaps I will start with writing a postcard to somebody else :D

BTW, greetings and good luck with your new blog! Draw some 125x125 banner for your blog and send me a link to it if you want it to appear in my blogosphere section.

Jennifer 2007-09-21 18:47

Interesting start for a blog...it seems promising. I love this postcard idea. Sort of like post secret; but way more secret. Good luck getting this going :)

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