Letter Writing Week: Reflection

Letter writing week 2011 has come to a close & here are my reflections on it. As I mentioned, Griffin & I relished in letters during the first few years of our relationship. Being in a long distance relationship, letters were tangible evidence of the abstract love we had for each other. We learned to love the adventure of dropping off parcels in the mail and unlocking our mailboxes in search of the next treasure. Sometimes we would include random tidbits in each letter. I remember putting some confetti in a letter to him from the AFC Championship game 2007 where the Colts beat the Patriots. He would include the heart from his favorite cereal: Grape Nut Flakes. It was endearing & I hope one day our future children will find them interesting when we show them how we managed to love each other from a far distance away.

Letter writing, like any relationship, takes time. In order to get something out of it, you have to put time into it, and that means making time. I learned that this week. After three & a half years of a long distance relationship, writing letters every week has been transformed into daily 10-15 minute conversations and occasional video chatting. I really had to plan for these lettters, make time to write them each day. It was time for Griffin & time for myself. Overall, this was a good reminder that 10-15 minutes each day isn't going to cut it. Letters are, in some ways, more intimate than phone conversations. You get to see pen on paper from someone who spent time carving out each letter individually; it's much more concrete than an email.

So, that being said, I will revert back to my snail-mail fetish and be a letter-writer once more. For me, it's easy to get lazy, but I'm really going to try. Those who will be receiving long overdue letters from me will be my college roommate, my four-year daily Mass friend from Creighton, and my grandma.

Long live letters!