My generation doesn’t write letters. We don’t use the mail except for school-related reasons or for magazines (maybe). It is all about text messages and e-mail and social media accounts for us. It makes sense: if you want to communicate with someone, why not do it instantaneously? If you want to talk to someone for longer, why not just call whomever you are trying to get in touch with?

Communication has become something quick and instant for us. My generation doesn’t have patience anymore. We don’t have the patience to sit down and hand-write a letter. We don’t have the patience to put a stamp on a letter and put that letter in the mailbox. We don’t have patience to wait for the letter to get to the recipient and then for them to write back to us. We don’t have the patience that comes with waiting to receive a letter.

Writing to someone is personal. That is the reason why I love writing to people so much. When you willingly take the time out of your day to sit down and write even just a few paragraphs to someone, it shows them that they are worth your time. Handwritten letters are so personal and meaningful to those you send them to.

I enjoy it because there is nothing better than surprising a friend or loved one with a letter specifically addressed to them. Receiving a letter could brighten their day so much. I never realized the impact that my writing letters had on others until I received many letters in return. After receiving several, I knew exactly how they all felt when they initially got my letters. Upon receiving a letter, there is this awesome mixture of surprise, excitement and thankfulness.

I don’t just write to make myself look better to others. I want to write to strengthen the relationship I have with the people I write to. Like I said earlier, writing to someone is personal. It helps to maintain the quality of relationships even when I am far away at school. Anyone can send a simple text message, Facebook instant message, or tweet at someone, but how often do you get handwritten letters from friends?

Putting in the effort to write and mail a letter is a great motivation for me. Often I want to make sure that the letter will get out as soon as I am done addressing it. So it makes me wake up earlier instead of sleeping in so that I can put the letters into the mailbox. Writing letters also encourages me to work on my handwriting skills. Cursive isn’t taught in schools anymore and I don’t normally write in cursive on a daily basis so writing letters helps me expand and perfect those skills.

Writing and communication skills are really important, especially seeing how technologically involved the world has become. Writing letters to people helps me in multiple ways but it is something that I wish would become more common among millennials. Writing letters to each other is a simple task two people can take part in that just means so much.