Miss Rhino When I asked my friend, Gail Miller as she prefers to be called, what she was doing, the last thing I expected her to say was writing a hand-written letter to her crush. "Four pages and counting," she said. "And I think I'm gonna write a rap, too."
Here we are smack dab in the middle of the age of e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and Twitter, and Ms. Miller over here is practicing her penmanship. All I could say was: "What are you gonna do? .... Mail it?" I'm not sure I even know what the price of a stamp is these days.
Just when I thought the only use for pens and pencils was to twist up my hair, Gail Miller has come to the rescue with her old-school notions of salutations and signatures, and a post-script of the hip-hop persuasion apparently.
The art of the written love letter is a truly romantic and intimate gesture that has been tossed aside like an old Tamagotchi.
Instead of having a box of old letters to take out and read and cherish for years to come, you may have those precious sentiments saved in a folder on your Desktop named "Stuff" or something equally mundane. You better believe those soul-bearing emails are lost the minute your computer meets its maker (read: blue screen of death.)
I remember how special I felt that day in 8th grade when I received my first love letter. Sure it said something along the lines of "I think you're really pretty. Do you want to be my girlfriend? Check yes, no or maybe" but I couldn't have been more thrilled. And then when I got my first post-breakup love letter three weeks later when I decided I should have checked no, his hand-written affections and pleas for another chance won me over (just for another week and then it was really over.) Powerful things, love letters are.
We live, breathe and flirt in a world of high-tech romance. It's easy to forget the traditional and timeless gestures that have made men like Shakespeare, Voltaire and Keats the go-to guys from the past. Should we strip off our digital armor and jump-start the hand-written revolution? I think so people. I think so.
Have you ever received a hand-written letter of affection? Or are pens and paper truly a thing of the past?
Comments (45)
I actually have sent and received a handwritten love letter within a month.
Still sending too. You should try it. :)
i think theyre still romantic! and theyre not in the past!
not recieved one myself tho =[
I think theyre still chiq. I do the love letter thing, but I write them in my notebook and don't give them to her anymore.
The problem here is that no one remembers how to correctly format a letter. So what you would have is a bunch of letters bouncing around that have improper formatting and alignment, combined with online/txt shortcuts like "UR" and "U 2" and all sorts of other things that make my little teachery head explode.
Before we start La Révolution, we need to first teach the proper way to format your letter, spell the words you wish to use (or at least provide dictionaries, as letters do not have spell check), and the correct grammar usage. Otherwise, teachers, editors, and grammar nazis the world over will be terminated in one giant head-bursting moment.
And that just gets messy, don't you think?
Just a little thought from your friendly neighborhood teacher;)
-Katie
p.s. In all seriousness, love letters are wonderful. There's nothing better than receiving a written declaration of love from someone you care about.:)
I write hand-written letters a lot, especially to my boyfriend.
I love the feeling of receiving an actual letter in the mailbox. It's amazing.
My girlfriend and I exchange letters (relatively) frequently. :)
I've kept all of them.
@Viserys@xanga - Mine got displayed first, sucka. ;P
@asininity - Still waiting on that 7 page letter. =D
@Viserys@xanga - Remember, it's only seven pages, because I've been writing it since June. Don't get your panties in a bunch.
I love LOVE handwritten letters :) To me, it is just MUCH more personal :) My boyfriend and I send each other love letters, and I love it!
I did handwrite a letter during the summer, and it ended up being... uhm... 20ish pages -.- I'm not sure if my boyfriend finished reading it yet >.<
i've recieved about 3ish from this one guy. pen and paper. along with envelope. But it was given instead of mailed. =T
i LOVE love letters. So personal and yeah I've gotten a few given to me, not mailed.
I've written my boyfriend love letters! I folded one up like a heart too. He loved it :)
I have a few, and they're on my list of "Things to save from my house if it ever catches on fire."
My girlfriend has written me several and I really enjoyed them. She wants me to write her one because she's tired of getting all her romance electronically, but since my handwriting is on par with a ten year old's, I'm embarrassed.
Yep. I've always prefered snail mail actually. To me love letters always meant more hand written then typed *shrugs* I feel it's just more intimate and personal.
My boyfriend lives in another country, so I couldn't write him anything hand-written, but I write him e-mails every night, and when he came here, I had bought a card and written a long sweet message in it
@tokyoexpressman@xanga - Do it anyway. I'm sure she'll figure out what it says. There is no need to be embarrassed I'm sure she'll love it despite your handwriting!!
I think hand-written love letters are really romantic and sweet! :)
I've never received one though... :(
the last time i got one was back in 8th grade. it was actually pretty well written for a kid of that age, as i recall. unfortunately, i never really liked him so i just kept it as a sort of momento.
i've written a bunch of love letters, but i've never had the guts to send them. maybe someday.
We started with the aforementioned middle school love notes. Now, I've written him almost every week in the school year for three years now. They're mundane at times, just me writing to say hi and tell him about my week, but I hope he appreciates it.
I did write one, a year or two ago, that was pages and pages; I never intended to show it to him. It was all the things and feelings I could never explain to him face to face. I'm glad I did give him that letter, though, and I would encourage anyone to write a letter you "never intend to send". It's a good way to figure things out and be honest and really show your love.
My boyfriend drew a cute little doodle of himself making a happy face once and signed it, "Hello Kate. I love you." and dropped it into my Summer Gym bag. I saw him do it but it was the sweetest thing.
So yes, I have. ^^ I spilled water on it once and nearly had a heart attack, but it's okay now, and I'm NEVER getting rid of it.
My boyfriend did something really cute last summer: he wrote a letter on the back of a puzzle, took it apart, and mailed it to me. The puzzle was adorable, and when I put it together I got to turn it over and see what he'd written!
I've written a love letter before, but my then-boyfriend never sent one back... :( I wish I got letters more often!
@tokyoexpressman@xanga - My boyfriend has really horrible handwriting but it seriously warms my heart to see it; even when he's just writing Latin conjugations on the chalkboard.
Either I'm seriously screwed up or she'll absolutely adore any love letter you hand-write to her, regardless of your handwriting. :) And if it's really bad, maybe she'll enjoy having you read it out to her, as well.
I pass notes with people in school (:
mainly the new kids I'm trying to hit on, lmfao