How many handwritten letters--actual letters, not thank-you notes or invitations--have you received in the past five years?

On the top shelf of my closet, I have two shoe boxes overflowing with handwritten letters I have received over the years. Letters packed with emotions--anger, joy, confusion, silliness, tears and giggles. Curious, I counted, and there are at least 100 dusty envelopes postmarked from 2008 when I began saving my letters to 2013 when college began and my hobby took a back seat.

If you asked a teenager today how they keep in touch with friends, most would respond that they use social media tools such as Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat to communicate with their local and long distance friends. However, when I was a teenager, my world was weirdly different. While other kids my age spent free time playing video games or watching TV, I ran to the mailbox most afternoons, excitedly anticipating a letter from one of my many pen pals.

Washington.

Illinois.

Kansas.

Montana.

Mississippi.

Georgia.

Missouri.

Through online classes through Bob Jones University Press and other home school events, I met friends across the United States, and we chose to write letters.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I was fascinated by letter writing. I loved learning the correct way to format my letters and then writing notes to my friends. Sticking a fresh stamp on the neatly sealed and colorfully decorated envelope was the perfect way to let someone know you were thinking about them. I never made the connection until later in life, but I have slowly discovered how much writing letters has impacted me as a person. I no longer write novels of boy drama or sibling squabbles to friends across the country (shoutout to Juan for writing the longest letters in history, Sarah for the most fun birthday packages, and Emily for the most elaborate envelope decorations!), but I still use the skills of written communication as I communicate by email, text and even hand-delivered notes. By fostering friendships solely through the written word, I had the chance to explore my own voice, share my life and take time to understand another person.

Of course, this does sound much like texting. However, writing letters requires an attentiveness that is often lost within texting conversations. During my letter writing days, I often spent at least an hour, sometimes two or three, each week composing letters. Sure, most people probably spend this much time or even more composing texts throughout the week, but writing a letter usually requires all the writing to be done at once, while texts can be composed throughout the day and even on the go. While responding to the letters I received from pen pals, I had to practice close reading skills as I dissected the received letter and determined which portions required a response and which were simply for me to smile and nod.

My love for carefully chosen words and perfectly placed exclamations bled into my academic life as I chose to major in English at college. Though academic writing is wildly different from those letters I scribbled while sitting at my desk or huddling in bed, those communications prepared me to explore various forms of writing and tugged at my little writer's voice to help me become the writer I am today.

While most of my pen pals are now off at college, living somewhere new or sadly strangers, the one thing I would say to all of them is thank you. Thank you for exposing me to a culture within the United States that I might have never experienced without knowing you. Thank you for sharing your unique point of view. Thank you for letting me share my hopes and dreams and for sharing yours with me. Thank you for being a friend even though I never met you in person (another shoutout to Joel for being the shocking exception). Thank you for being my pen pal and giving me a sounding board to shape my voice even before I knew writing would be my life.