My Favorite Letter

Yes. I admit... I am one of those girls... the ones who stow their juicy junior high notes away somewhere for years. I have fun notes from my best friends, mean notes from others who had a bone to pick (as is often the case in middle school with girls), gushy sweet notes from my first boyfriend Sean, and notes from a dude that just wouldn't give up. I also had, until recently, all of the letters sent to me at summer camp (ages 8-17). And it wasn't until this past year that I finally sat down, reminisced, and ultimately trashed most of these.

As embarrassing as it is, I also feel the need to disclose that I was once known to print off copies of IM conversations and emails. For some reason I felt I had to keep a record of these monumental conversations. As sad as it sounds, AIM was a huge part of my social life 7th grade through most of college. It's a weird forum for conversation because people say things over IM they'd never say out loud. Flirtation, frustration, and farkles reach all new highs when one is instant messaging. My typing digits were quite daring. I would ask questions I'd always wanted to ask but couldn't utter in person, disclose crushes to the actual crushee, and just plain show my cards. I guess this is why I printed these dialogues. They were fascinating and a whole different side of me.

The reason I bring this up is because this past year, I stumbled upon some boxes in my garage labeled "J's Memories." I tore open the boxes and found mounds of letters from the last 25 years. Despite the heat, I sat down in the middle of my garage and began to read... and read... and read. It was fun to remember old friends, sad to see how some relationships had changed, and eye-opening to see how I had changed. This provided hours of entertainment and was quite thought-provoking. I sorted through the piles trashing the majority of them after my perusal. I couldn't trash them all though. What can I say? My love language is words of affirmation! One of the letters I kept was from 1991 (when I was only 9 years old). It was so sweet that since finding it, I have taped it up by my phone at work so that I see its words daily. It really is a treasure to me. I've included it below as an encouragement to you to write someone a note today. It could mean the world to them.