of handwritten letters

snailmail.
it's been on my mind for no small while now.

when i was a wee lass, 'round 7 or 8 years old, it was jokes and hand-drawn pictures and some puzzles i'd mail to my parents. on awkward kiddy handwriting, i'd scratch my own address on brown envelopes, lick and stick the stamp (a bee on a yellow-green background!) and send it back to my own house.

of late, the thoughts of a close secondary school friend, J, bob close to the surface of my mind. we used to write epics to each other every few days. and they were handwritten(!) on anything from cheapo li'l bobdog letterpaper, to more luxurious cute sanrio notepaper, or when we couldn't be bothered, on school foolscap paper. it was weird in a way, where we would have a mandatory word-count at the end of each letter. the longer, the better, of course. sometimes it would go up to over 1000 (omigosh! that's an essay worthy of year 1 at most universities!) while most times it would hover between 500-800 words. and many times, (or should i say, as a result), the letters were filled with a barrage of mundane information we'd otherwise have found out while chatting after school anyway: test scores, secret crushes, gossip about various teachers and friends, etc. the usual. it's funny how 2 girls, who'd be talking anyway, have so much to write to each other about.

secondary school life was awkward and disorientating enough, and it was a blessing to have a friend to write to, or to confide in. we'd go shopping together, or hang out at mcdonald's, or discuss how best to polish our boots, or discuss the cute guys in teenage magazine (hahahah!). i'd go over to her place often, since it was just opposite our school. her mom was a tuition teacher and her 2 older brothers were smart and cute and friendly. and her dog was a hyperactive white fluffy thing that liked nothing better than to hump the legs of any passing person. there was something about girls' schools and how they tend to churn out rather generic handwriting styles. because i've kept a box of old cards and letters from bygone years... remnants from church camps, gb camps, school camps and everyday life - and they tend to look similarly decorated!

it's sad, because i can't really recall if we kept in contact during our days in different junior colleges. but i remember we went for the jars of clay concert at the harbour pavillion sometime in '98. that was the weird in-between time of odd jobs and slacking, after a-levels and before the dreaded day for the release of results. wish i had her contact details now.

anyways. the last i knew of J was that she'd read law at university. and i even googled her, and found some bogus webpage of some law firm. but she wasn't there. and for some reason, i'd made a conscious effort to turn down her invitation to her 21st birthday party, just so i could avoid awkward silences when i met other long-time-no-see friends. that was stupid, but typical behaviour from me.

now that i'm stuck in melbs, the incidence of me hand-writing snailmail and sending them off to friends is much higher. though it has been part of past years' resolutions, it never really took off until last year. sms, emails, IM are for people who actually keep in touch regularly enough to see each other for frequent-to-occasional meals. but snailmail's the stuff of long ago, for people who matter.