One of the great elements of human nature is our ability to express ourselves. There are oodles of ways people can show their individualistic souls to the rest of the world, whether that be through music, painting, speaking and one of my personal favorites: writing.
For my 20th birthday, my dad gifted me a quill and ink set.
It's one of my absolute favorite things I've ever received because I love writing poetry, and I love finding ways to shake my poems up. Just a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I had bunches of stationary at my hand, eagerly waiting for ink. Then I thought, rather than send a text, why not surprise them with a handwritten letter?
And I did just that, and I urge you to do so, as well.
Not only did my messages get the whole works: spilled ink, smudges and too thick/thin of letters, they were given personality with glorious enhancements from human error. Not all mistakes are ugly.
After three days of having sent the letters out, my friend got in touch with me to tell me how much of a day-maker it was to open her campus mailbox and see a letter from me. Making a simple part of her day better was just as rewarding as it was to write the note.
The glory behind manually scribbling a letter is taking that step away from bright pixels and putting true creativity to work. Phones and email all come with boring old default fonts. The art behind handwriting is another story, and it's one that needs to be told.
So where did this lost art run off to? People nowadays are so afraid to spare 10 minutes to pen a note and take it to the post office. But they don't realize that writing is therapeutic itself. Driving or walking the message lets a person get out of the house. Sure, stamps can be pricey. But hey, so can a phone bill.
Manually inking paper isn't meant to be perfect, and that's actually a good thing. We need to prove that we're humans. And as humans, we were given the gift to scribe, and we must thrive on this. I'm not saying technology is evil or completely out of the question, but we shouldn't rely so heavily on the personality of an email when we have the option to express ourselves artistically.
When someone writes you a letter, you take into consideration that this person spent time thinking about you. They physically chose the paper they wrote the note on, the color of the ink and what they said to you. Letters are physical and collectible. Emails and texts are virtual and replaceable.
Writing is truly a work of art, and we must protect it.
And since we're on the topic, I'd like you to try something for me. Think of a person. Any person who has had an impact on your life in some way. Great, you're halfway there! Now, this next step is very important.
