Earlier this week, I was asked how the friend making process has been for someone who’s an online student three thousand miles away from campus. The short answer is that it’s not bad; I know my swimming teammates, my roommate, and a handful of other students, and they’re all really cool people. The long answer is that there’s a lot more to it.
Now, you’ve heard it a million times and then some; we are in the midst of “unprecedented disruption.” However, “despite the challenge,” people are [fill in the blank]. Learning new instruments. Spending more time with family. Practicing and perfecting new skills such as cooking, crafting, or woodworking. It took one universally life changing event for people to start doing the things they’ve always wanted to. And in a lot of ways, I think it’s a beautiful thing that people are making the best of their current situation.
I’ve gotten into something known as snail mail. You may have heard of it; it’s the way your grandparents get their electricity bill every month. Yup, straight out of the mailbox. Back in early March, I looked around my room, noticed the abundance of greeting cards and had an epiphany of sorts. I figured, “why not write letters to people? It’s not like I have anything else to do.” So the flurry of cards, stickers, and stamps began. I wrote out some thirty-odd letters to my friends, got a few responses, and kept going from there.
At first, my goal was to learn something new. I’d only written a few letters before and my parents had helped me with those, so I wanted to give it a real shot by myself. What I wasn’t expecting was to find something that I enjoyed so greatly. There’s a few key things I really love about writing letters. You sit down, take out five minutes to an hour out of your day to put a stream of consciousness onto paper, and boom! All that’s left is to put an address, stamp, and send it off. It’s not a “hey” text at an odd hour; it’s a well thought out response in an active, yet slow, conversation with someone.
To be completely honest, another reason why I love it so much is because it’s a slow process. You see, being in the middle of the semester in my first year of college means I get to practice a multitude of skills, including, but not limited to, procrastination, rushing assignments, and forgetting certain classes exist altogether. All by accident, of course. So to have a conversation with someone that takes place across a span of months and that I can do without worrying about unknowingly leaving someone on read or if my response time is too fast or too slow, is pretty sweet.
One of the biggest things that writing to people has taught me is different perspectives. I’ve been able to write to people from different countries, including Canada, Germany, and France, and hear about life in their respective locations. Of course, it’s a separate thing entirely to visit these countries, but hearing about people talk about their home country or current stay is really intriguing. Not to fear, everyone! Paris has boba shops now!
I’ve also been able to write to people from all across the United States, including people from Stevens. I’ve had letters delivered with wax seals on them, and letters delivered in tape-and-binder-paper envelopes. I’ve talked about music, life, sports, travel, and even things as simple as what I’m thankful for today. So when someone asks me how making friends has been for a student at home, I’d say it’s actually been going pretty great. I’ve been able to see the world in the eyes of a dozen different people, and I’ve never been so excited to go out and get the mail.
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