Old fashioned snail mail is slowly dying out because of the wonderful Internet and the speed of e-mail passing letters from one person to another, be it family or friend, or a lover. You sign into any mail website you like such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hot-mail, etc. and make an account that you probably check every day, or use in some way or another every day. You write what you want to say to your friend, click send and off it goes whizzing off into cyberspace, maybe hitting a few bumps in the road but that same day it appears on your friend’s computer, awaiting to be read in their email.

And then the process begins again when they reply, hitting send and making the email shoot off back through cyberspace and slam back into your inbox awaiting for you to read and reply, the never ending cycle of E-mailing on the net. But once the net goes down, how do you keep in contact with your friend? Yes phone calling is nice but what if their cell phone is down and they live miles and miles away from you in another state?

That is where you have your old fashioned letter writing come back into play. It of course will take more time to write and send because you have to use paper and pen or pencil, write out everything you wish to say as neatly as you can since you could be a bit rusty, and then stick it into a stamped envelope, place their address on it and walk it to your mailbox. Then once you return back to your house you have to wait for a week or two for the letter to arrive at your family or friend’s house. Then you have to wait until they open the letter, read it, and then write their own reply and send one back which may take up a few days, a few weeks, or even a month. But is the wait really worth it? Do you truly thing that old fashioned snail mail should come to a complete end?

No it should stay and continue to thrive for if the net is down this the best way to communicate, even if the Internet is still up and running smoothly. When you receive a letter in the mail how does it make you feel? Do you truly appreciate that family member or friend or lover more because he or she took the time out of their busy day to sit down at their desk or wherever they enjoy writing and actually using pen, paper, and a stamped envelope and hand write a letter to communicate with you?

I truly love writing letters to friends, family and especially to my husband when he is away for long or even short period of times.  I write letters to my best friends all the time and even have a couple pen pals.  My love to write doesn’t stop at writing stories but continues on in writing fun letters, telling my friends what has happened, discussing work and life, even about dating and guys from time to time.  But I know in my heart that I shall never truly let snail mail disappear.  I have boxes full of letters that I sometimes bring out and reread, those letters putting a smile on my face.  Because someone has put the time and effort to actually take time out of their busy day to write to me, makes the letters mean even more.  Especially all of those letters written by my husband, while he was out to sea back in 2007-2008, and that being the only way to communicate.  Of course, yes I do enjoy getting E-mails but opening the mailbox and seeing hand written letters truly makes my day.