This happened once last year, too. I blog at night and before I have a chance to finish the post, the day changes. And so, like that, I have "missed" Nov. 7 and have to post twice on Nov. 8. I blame the fact that I was up until 3:30am talking (and laughing, ask Jay) with two of my best friends online last night. So I'm a couple hours behind tonight. But I promise it was worth it.
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I look at
Postsecret.com every Sunday. One week, there was a secret that said something like, "Every day I check the mail hoping someone has written to me, but all I ever get is bills." Sometimes, after a secret is posted, Frank Warren , the creator of the site, will post E-mails that he got about the secret. This particular Sunday, someone had written in to say simply, "He Will." and they posted the website of something called "The Letter Project." All you had to do to participate in the letter project was send the creator a letter with your name and home address, and he would mail you a handwritten letter. You could tell him something you wanted him to write you about, and if you didn't he would just write about thoughts he had lately, or about books he had read, or whatever. The point wasn't really what he wrote about, it was that he thought handwriting letters was a dying art that he was doing his best to keep alive.
This completely appealed to me. One Saturday I decided to write him, and I told him in the letter how much I loved his idea and said that if he needed help writing the letters I would be happy to help him. And I was serious, but I didn't think there was any way he would take me up on it. Then a couple weeks later I got a letter back in the mail. His handwriting was almost old fashioned looking, and his writing was beautiful. He told me that he does have a few people help him out with writing the letters because depending on how much advertising he gets at a certain time, he can get a TON of E-mails and he has a hard time keeping up on his own. So he sent me his phone number and told me to think about how serious I was about it, and if I decided it was something I wanted to do, I could call him for an interview, and we could work out how I could be involved.
Not long after that was when I started my Radiology class, which took up a ton of my time because I didn't understand it very well and the teacher didn't teach in a way that worked well with me. And so I never called him. I thought about it a lot. But I never did.
I did start writing letters of my own, though. I got to where I was writing a letter or two every night to my family and friends. And I was getting letters back fairly consistantly, which I really liked. It brought back the excitement of getting the mail, and made me feel involved with the people around me. I loved it.
I kept thinking about him and the opportunity he had given me to be a part of the project that I loved so much. Not too long ago, I tried to look up his website so I could write him and get the number again. But it's gone. I can find references to it and things that people have written about it, but not the actual site.
I still had his address because we had written a few letters back and forth, and a couple weeks ago I wrote him to tell him I was still interested if he was still doing the project. I know it's been a long time, but can I still be a part of it?
As of yet, no word.
So I'm hoping it will come. And until it does, I'm just waiting.
And my favorite part: "By responding quickly and enthusiastically to her smiles...you let her know she's important to you, that she can trust you, and that she has a certain amount of control in her life. This contributes to her developing self esteem."
