life and society | an old fashioned way to keep in touch with people

Ruth Ibarra is a twenty something year-old Mexican girl who absolutely loves to laugh and listen to music, to spend time with her friends and to chat with them over a nice cup of coffee. After working on her thesis for a couple of years, she’s finally graduated (this January 14th will be a month since the exciting day) and now holds a degree in History. She’s currently excited about possibly applying to a linguistics or history MA this 2012.

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An Old Fashioned Way to Keep in Touch with People.

Ruth Ibarra

A while ago, I was walking downtown with one of my best friends and as we passed by the postal office he expressed his surprise when realizing people still mail each other, I giggled a little but a part of me thought of how many people might have forgotten about this service. I mailed my first letter when I was 20 years old and it was quite the experience. First, I had to find the postal office which I hadn’t even noticed when walking by it. I felt a little silly not knowing exactly what to do, I mean I was 20 and had not much of an idea. Once I bought the stamps and placed them on the envelope I hoped the letter wouldn’t get lost. It reached its destination.

There’s something about mailing the old fashioned way that I can’t help but to like. Yes, nowadays is fairly easy and fast to reach someone even if that person lives in a different city, country or continent, it’s pretty much just a click away, whether you email, tweet or FB. But there’s something about the excitement of sending a letter, and waiting for one to arrive. Honestly, both things make my day.

When I was a child, I liked to look over my mom’s letters, letters she had received when she was younger from people who lived in and out of our country. I loved looking at the envelopes, the handwriting, the stamps, and I wondered when people had written them, where, had they gotten a reply? My mom used to keep them in a pale pink bag and every now and then she would bring it out when cleaning (now that I think about it, I haven’t seen those letters in a long while), and she’d tell me stories regarding the people who had sent them and how she had gotten to meet them. She stop mailing them and lost contact with some of those persons over the years.

Ever since I came back to Mexico from Arizona, where I met Daphne in 2009, I’ve been mailing to the friends I made there (Daph included) every now and then. I hope we continue to mail cards and letters to each other, because it’s a great way to keep in touch. As I said, arriving home and finding out the postman left me a little something that travelled miles and miles, totally makes my day. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be showing someone the many letters and cards my lovely friends have sent me over the years. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t, and hey if you have a significant other, it’d be really sweet.

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This inaugural series "life and society" comes to end with Ruth's post. A big thank you for all who read it and supported this series. My guests and I definitely hope that you found what you read encouraging, sobering, inspiring, or all three (and more? haha). If you would like to see all the articles written by my 12 guests for this series, you can do so here or click on the "life and society" tag.