I have recently gained a couple of pen pals (none of them are from here), and I'm so excited! I can hardly wait to get letters from them! I haven't had one in a few years now, and it kind of bummed me out because it was loads of fun! I have been getting irritated or something due to the lack of having someone to write to (family is eh at the moment and I don't want to get involved). Jeez, I'm just so excited that I wanna dance and sing! It's not often that I receive letters from someone, so this is great for me!

Has anyone here have had a pen pal before? How did it go, and how often did you write to each other? My last pen pal and I wrote to each other every week, and we started off by writing to each other our first letter, and then reply to those. It might not have been... ideal, but it was still radical! I have kept all my letters from them, so I can look back and smile. As far as I know, no one here writes letters to anyone like in days of old. I don't mean like banks sending notaries, but lovers writing to each other or friends gossiping to each other kind of deal.

I browsed the web and looked for organizations that had pen pal programs; unfortunately, most of the websites I stumbled upon were too restrictive or didn't cater to my wants. I stumbled upon a website I have an account on and saw that there was a place for those to look for pen pals. Of course, I have messaged some and made a post myself in search of a pen pal and now I have a few. I did post on another site about pen pals, and so, I gained one more pen pal there.

How many of you like having pen pals to write to, and anything you look for in a pen pal?

I always wanted to do a Penpal, but I broke my hand when I was younger, and my handwriting... isn't the best. I wonder if there were E-Mail penpals, or maybe, we can set up an 'Open Letter Pen Pals' where each day, or once a week, we can post a long post about our day. By creating a time limit to post, everyone gets a chance to post, and we can take time to build up what to post? Just an idea...

I had penpals when I was much much younger.
I always was very slow replying and the people I wrote to were very slow too, so correspondence was not very fluid. But it was fun anyway!

After I left this forum (for a large hiatus) I kept in touch with another person from here.
We used e-mail instead of snail mail... and still were very slow to reply xD

I've had penpals before but they would usually only last a couple of exchanges.

I think that email penpals would be a lot easier. And cheaper!
And then as you get closer you could also start supplementing the emails with cards and packages.

It certainly sounds nice.

Rehgai wrote:I always wanted to do a Penpal, but I broke my hand when I was younger, and my handwriting... isn't the best. I wonder if there were E-Mail penpals, or maybe, we can set up an 'Open Letter Pen Pals' where each day, or once a week, we can post a long post about our day. By creating a time limit to post, everyone gets a chance to post, and we can take time to build up what to post? Just an idea...

There are people who do e-mail pen pals, but I prefer snail mail as there's more of a personal touch to them, and I believe hardly anyone takes the time to write letters and then send them out. How did you break your hand, and have you tried writing from the shoulder instead of your hand/wrist?

Your "open letter pen pals" suggestion does seem interesting. Maybe you should try it out and see what happens!

Amura wrote:I had penpals when I was much much younger.
I always was very slow replying and the people I wrote to were very slow too, so correspondence was not very fluid. But it was fun anyway!

After I left this forum (for a large hiatus) I kept in touch with another person from here.
We used e-mail instead of snail mail... and still were very slow to reply xD

Ah, casually writing letters to each other when you had the time. Honestly, I wish I had kept in touch with one of the staff from my former elementary school. I miss her a lot. Every time I tried to write to her... I ended up putting it off and now it's too late. I couldn't even find her old address the last time I tried writing to her!

light_sucks wrote:I've had penpals before but they would usually only last a couple of exchanges.

I think that email penpals would be a lot easier. And cheaper!
And then as you get closer you could also start supplementing the emails with cards and packages.

It certainly sounds nice.

While it's true that e-mail pen pals would be easier and cheaper for some... e-mails get lost in my inbox, and I hardy count e-mail pen pals as pen pals since you're not using pen and paper, or anything to actually rite with. E-mails are more of a text pal to me, though Rehgai might have a good idea about having an open letter pen pals thread.

Boris_Boris wrote:

Rehgai wrote:I always wanted to do a Penpal, but I broke my hand when I was younger, and my handwriting... isn't the best. I wonder if there were E-Mail penpals, or maybe, we can set up an 'Open Letter Pen Pals' where each day, or once a week, we can post a long post about our day. By creating a time limit to post, everyone gets a chance to post, and we can take time to build up what to post? Just an idea...

There are people who do e-mail pen pals, but I prefer snail mail as there's more of a personal touch to them, and I believe hardly anyone takes the time to write letters and then send them out. How did you break your hand, and have you tried writing from the shoulder instead of your hand/wrist?

Your "open letter pen pals" suggestion does seem interesting. Maybe you should try it out and see what happens!

Well... I broke my hand in a pillow fight.

It was 2nd grade (about 7 or 8), had an older brother (12 to 13) that wanted to have a pillow fight. And he just really whacked me with the pillow. I tried to defend myself, but the hit landed wrong and bent my hand an incorrect way. Was in a cast for a few months, and my handwriting never really recovered.

What thread would be the open Pen Pals work best?

Rehgai wrote:

Boris_Boris wrote:

Rehgai wrote:I always wanted to do a Penpal, but I broke my hand when I was younger, and my handwriting... isn't the best. I wonder if there were E-Mail penpals, or maybe, we can set up an 'Open Letter Pen Pals' where each day, or once a week, we can post a long post about our day. By creating a time limit to post, everyone gets a chance to post, and we can take time to build up what to post? Just an idea...

There are people who do e-mail pen pals, but I prefer snail mail as there's more of a personal touch to them, and I believe hardly anyone takes the time to write letters and then send them out. How did you break your hand, and have you tried writing from the shoulder instead of your hand/wrist?

Your "open letter pen pals" suggestion does seem interesting. Maybe you should try it out and see what happens!

Well... I broke my hand in a pillow fight.

It was 2nd grade (about 7 or 8), had an older brother (12 to 13) that wanted to have a pillow fight. And he just really whacked me with the pillow. I tried to defend myself, but the hit landed wrong and bent my hand an incorrect way. Was in a cast for a few months, and my handwriting never really recovered.

What thread would be the open Pen Pals work best?

Oh, ouch! I never knew pillows could cause such damage! Then again, I've never been in a pillow fight... not that I can recall, anyways.

I think maybe the hangout area would be good, though I'm not entirely too sure myself.

I've had a few one pals in my life.

The first was when I was in 4th grade, and I was Penpals with a German kid. We bonded over Pokemon and I doodled on my letters to send him drawings since we were only allowed to use like 2 or 3 sheets of paper to write.

The next Penpal was a school friend who had moved away in 6th grade. We also bonded over Pokemon and I sent him drawings with the letters of random Pokemon he liked.

The next three were internet friends that I bonded with over anime...mainly Naruto. This was during my teen Weeb years. We were all artists so we sent each other drawings, sometimes postcards with doodles on them, and one penpal even sent me a keychain and handmade card!

I wouldn't mind having another penpal nowadays. As for what I would want in a penpal...probably just that we would have similar interests so we could have something to talk and gush over. I'm horrible with small talk, even in written form.

We did this thing back in school where everyone got a pen pal from another country, but it didn't really work that well since everyone was kinda forced to do it.. I always wanted to try again but just never got around to it. And then the internet got really big and it was so easy to just lurk in forums.

Hitomi-no-Tsubasa wrote:I've had a few one pals in my life.

The first was when I was in 4th grade, and I was Penpals with a German kid. We bonded over Pokemon and I doodled on my letters to send him drawings since we were only allowed to use like 2 or 3 sheets of paper to write.

The next Penpal was a school friend who had moved away in 6th grade. We also bonded over Pokemon and I sent him drawings with the letters of random Pokemon he liked.

The next three were internet friends that I bonded with over anime...mainly Naruto. This was during my teen Weeb years. We were all artists so we sent each other drawings, sometimes postcards with doodles on them, and one penpal even sent me a keychain and handmade card!

I wouldn't mind having another penpal nowadays. As for what I would want in a penpal...probably just that we would have similar interests so we could have something to talk and gush over. I'm horrible with small talk, even in written form.

That's cool you had a penpal from a different country! I've tried that, but no such dice. Pokemon is pretty cool, and it's cool you drew pokemon to make the letters extra special. It's also nice you kept in touch with your friend from 6th grade after they moved as well.

Ah yes, anime... I used to watch it, but not so much now. I know Naruto a bit, but not so much. Do you still have the keychain and handmade card? It'd be cool to see those! I think it's cute when people gush over something, especially if it's a common interest.

IceAddict wrote:We did this thing back in school where everyone got a pen pal from another country, but it didn't really work that well since everyone was kinda forced to do it.. I always wanted to try again but just never got around to it. And then the internet got really big and it was so easy to just lurk in forums.

We did something similar to that, but it was just a couple of weeks or something with someone from another class. Other than that, nothing. There is one person I wish I could have kept in touch with, but I was too lazy, and now I fear the person is dead. She was old when I was younger... I regret not replying to her letter. You should try again, but only if you trust the person.