Call Me Old Fashioned, But...

I like real books

Yeah I like the ones you can hold, smell, turn pages of, write in, etc. It feels like a personal moment that is just for me. No one else has ever had my same experience with the piece of literature, as evidenced by my own personal crinkles in the page, or the juice stain from the apple I was eating.

Real thank you notes

Handwritten thank you notes involve a little extra effort on your part to express your gratitude to those you love. There is something so thoughtful and sweet about taking the time to find beautiful stationary and practice actual real-life penmanship and saying thank you. Whoever it is probably deserves at least that much thought.

Keep a physical journal

I’ve tried to keep online blogs, word documents as journals, and physical hand-written journals, and the latter is my absolute favorite. I adore having a book that I can pick up, hold, write in, paste things in, etc. It just feels like I’m taking my issues more seriously and thinking harder if I use legitimate pen and paper to voice my problems.

Physical photo albums

These can serve as a home decoration! Just place a photo album on your mantle, over the fireplace, on your desk, etc. All your family can see this and leaf through it, and it can start a nice session of reminiscing!

I love walking

Okay, I love it and I hate it. If I’m in a hurry it’s the worst thing ever. BUT if I’m strolling along, walking to class, out in nature, etc. it’s so relaxing. It can take me up to 40 minutes to walk to class if I forswear the bus, and it’s honestly my favorite time to call family, listen to music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.

Saying Hi when people pass

OKAY LITERALLY IT’S JUST COMMON COURTESY. But everyone looks at me like a martian when I give out a casual smile or “hello.” I guess it’s the cool thing to pretend to be busy on your phone instead of a simple greeting to strangers or acquaintances. Ugh. People these days. Learn how to converse.

Dating

Imagine trying to explain “talking” to your grandma. “Oh, yeah, so, he and I have kissed a couple times but we don’t really talk during the weekdays but sometimes we hang out on the weekends, but he hangs out with this other girl, though he says it’s just casual with her, but I don’t accept dates from other guys because we might be on our way to exclusive???” Yeah. Okay. Let’s get away from this vague, hook up culture and be up front and conversational with each other. People are awesome. Get to know them!