A THOUSAND AND ONE LETTERS

I was cleaning my closet a few days ago when I chanced upon this tape:

It says: Jill Miller USA, songs to Lea Ruste my best pal :)

Instantly, memories of my friend came flooding back in my mind. Of course! Jill Miller! I wonder how she's doing right now?

I think I started having penpals when I was 9 years old. Of course, at that time, we didn't have internet so I had to rely solely on writing my letters by hand. Yup, snail mail. I remember, everytime I received a letter from my friends I would be so ecstatic. I would address my letters care of my dad's office because it was like, only 8 meters away from the post office. My dad would bring them home and hand them to me and I would proceed to my bedroom and read about different places and cultures. I had penpals from the US, Finland, HongKong, Macau, Japan, France, Germany, Scotland, England, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico and oh my goodness, a lot more! That was how much I enjoyed letter writing. Sometimes, we would exchange trinkets like friendship bracelets or postcards or bookmarkers or stickers. There was a time when I sent some of my friends Philippine coins (of course, one at a time). =D But I had this friend, her name was Rachel Lynn Woods. She was my best-est penpal. We wrote each other for like 5 years or more. She gave me a wind-up musical dog and I sent her a Philippine doll. After that, we exchanged a lot of things as well as letters. We really enjoyed writing each other. Sadly, we have lost touch over the years because she moved frequently. My last 3 letters were returned to me with no forwarding address. She was originally from Illinois. I still look for her now in the internet. I hope to find her someday and rekindle our friendship.

Most of my penpals' letters are still in my room and I treasure them all. I remember going to the mall and picking the cutest stationary with matching envelopes. Oh, and of course the stickers. Never forget the stickers. =D My letters were always lengthy. It seemed that I always had something to write. Well, perhaps because of the length of time it took for a letter to arrive, so much has happened since then. Anyway, later on, a couple of my friends from the US would send me casette tapes and they would record their letter in there and some songs. Of course, I did the same. I was very happy when they told me that they understood everything I said to them and that they liked the songs I recorded for them (the songs were in English but were sung by Filipino artists). That was really fun.

I really valued the friendship formed through letter-writing. Because to be honest, it isn't easy. You just don't say something about the weather. You narrate about your life, your hopes and dreams. You share a piece of yourself to someone a thousand miles away and hope that your letter will make that person glad. You wait and wait for a reply and when it comes, you just can't wait to open it and take a peek into the world. In letter writing by snail mail, you really have to persevere, you have to WANT to do it. Having penpals made me value their friendship more because I know that they give some importance in our correspondence. It is this difficulty in letter exchanges that made me appreciate it even more. It's not like an email. You write down a few paragraphs and press send and voila! You've got mail. I just feel that somehow in this fast-paced world, a lot of things have become less meaningful.

I somehow feel a bit sad looking at all the letters from my friends. When I went to college, things just got so terribly busy and I just had no time to write anymore. There were times when I was SO busy I only saw my sister and brother every Sunday (we usually are together from Friday evening til Monday morning). I wish now that I had given even a little time to letter writing. I miss my friends. I wonder how they are right now. I wonder if they have families of their own, if they still live in the same address, if they are doing well. Yes, I miss them. I miss them a lot. Well maybe I'll surprise some of them with a postcard. Who knows? Our friendship may not be over yet.

This is only half of the letters I received from all my wonderful friends. If you are one of them, please please, email me soon! I miss you all!! =D