Well, well, well.
It’s March. I can’t believe how fast time goes by. I know we say that a lot. Like, all the time. But it’s probably because it’s the truth, eh? I still remember getting ready for the new year!
Anyway, I wanted to do a recap and reflect upon this year’s challenge.
I think I mentioned in another post that the first year I stumbled upon this challenge it was late in the month of February so I didn’t get to fully participate. Last year, the second year, I had every intension of participating, but got sick and didn’t really bounce back in time to finish the month.
And now we’re on this year.
And I didn’t do too bad. Yay me!
So, let’s recap.
The challenge is to write a letter and mail it each day the postal service is open. That means I should have written at least 24 pieces of mail, 24 days of the month. For those of you wondering where I got these rules, it would be from A Month of Letters. Let’s see how I did.
- Well, I missed a few days writing 20 out of 24 days. It kept missing writing on Saturday. And then I missed two Mondays.
- As for 24 pieces of mail? Well, to echo a fellow participant, I crushed it! The thing about me is I love writing so once I’m in a mood to write, I can pretty much write. Out of those 20 days of writing, 8 of those days I wrote more than one letter and/or postcard. Overall, I mailed 36 pieces of mail: 19 postcards, 5 cards, and 12 letters.
- As for incoming mail, I am happy to report I received 24 letters and/or postcards and actually, that number is a little skewed because some of the letters I received included postcards, but I counted that as one letter.
This year, in addition to my pen pals from The Letter Writer’s Alliance and my registered cards and pen pals at Postcrossing, I found even more people who share the love of letter-writing through A Month of Letters official website. This website is a great place if you’re interested in interacting with others and finding people to write to. There are forums where you can interact with others and you set a profile and everything. I had fun getting to know others and picked up at least 4 new friends.
Things I learned during this year’s challenge:
- Writing has always helped me. It helps me sort things through in my brain. It relaxes me. It brings me joy. This challenge has made me remember that.
- I tend to space out on the weekends. I guess a party of me already knew this, but this challenge has really pointed that out to me. I’m busy in general and the weekend I tend to have a lot of activities on top of catching up with my homework, but I didn’t realize I was too busy to sit down for 15 minutes to write a letter. Except, I can’t really write a 15 minute letter now can I? It usually takes about 20-30 minutes. I think that’s the beauty of writing, actually writing, a letter. Your mind is more engaged. Your body overall all is actually engaged when you think about it. It’s more than tapping a few keys and clicking send. You have to actually write the letter, then address the envelop, place a stamp on it, drive or walk to the post office or to your mailbox. It’s a whole process and I love it.
- I really enjoy receiving letters. This year’s challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to receive four unexpected letters from others participating in the challenge. They didn’t let me know until after I received it so it was a really nice surprise.
- I really enjoy sending letters. I like the entire process. The process of reading through someone’s letter, taking in their handwriting, picturing the stationery store they purchased their paper from, how they may have picked the stamps they used. I enjoy reading about the sender’s day or reading about their area. And then I love sitting down to write my reply. I have to say it’s hard for me to pick what stationery to use, but that’s part of the fun. And I love trying to decide on the stamps I’m going to use or the pen I’m going to write with. I enjoy dropping the letters I write off to the post office. It’s just … so interactive for me.
And that sums things up for me and A Month of Letters 2016. I am definitely going to continue writing letters throughout the year, especially now I have more pen pals to continue the exchange with. And I just found out about >>this<< challenge. The Write_On campaign. Similar to A Month of Letters, this challenge encourages you to write a letter a day in the month of April. So, it’s more days for sure, but I’m going for it.
Until then,
Keep On Writing!