will you be my pen-pal?

When I was little, my best friend moved to Pennsylvania.  Our parents were pretty tight, so our families kept in touch.  And being young girls, we decided to be pen-pals for a while.  We had the whole thing - secret codes, doodles, sparkles, whatever.  I kept all my letters for a while, but they got lost in a move somewhere along the way.  I still miss them.

When I went to Europe after graduating from high school, I met a guy (tall, dark, handsome, super cute, German, named Colin.  Swoon.)  Colin and I exchanged addresses and actually did a pretty good job of staying in touch for about a year.  And then as we both got more absorbed in our own college lives, things dropped off.  I know I have those notes somewhere, but I haven't seen any of them in about 5 years.  Sometimes I think about trying to write him again if I ever found that address, just to see what happens.

I think I'd like to try that whole foreign pen-pal thing again.  It seems like a very cool, mysterious and still child-like thing to do.  How often does someone you know bust out a story about his or her pen-pal in Iceland or Ireland or Tel Aviv or Brisbane?  We all know 'real mail' is super cool.  But real mail from another country?  Majorly super cool.

I think if I had a pen-pal, I would want that person to be from a completely different world than mine.  Outside the US would be awesome.  There's not a whole lot cooler, in my mind, than a hand-written letter with funny-looking postage, postcards from a small town I might not ever see, photos of a foreign back yard with who-knows-what in the distance, pressed flowers and ribbons and bookmarks.  I also romanticize local maps - the non-touristy kind.  And by 'romanticize' I mean 'I want them and I will frame them if you send them to me.'

In my mind, the pen-pal notion feels something akin to blogging, to an audience of one person, and much more slowly.  With a twinge of nostalgia.  And memories of Laura, and Colin, and all the little things I wish I could share with a stranger.

So with all that, I ask: will you be my pen-pal?  (and if you are from outside the US, will you pretty please be my pen-pal?)