I always dreamed of having a pen pal since I was little after hearing stories about keeping friendships going from across the globe, and meeting people with different cultural backgrounds but the same love for writing that you do. Since I can remember, my way of communicating with the world has been writing.
I’d write notes, letters, and spray them with my own perfume. dreaming about one day sending them to a real person I could tell my stories, ideas and artworks to. anything at all! and where we’d start the letters with “dearest X” and end them with “Sincerely, Or Love X.” I dreamed of having a friend who would share these passions with me. So I searched, but had long since given up.
All of this changed when I found Slowly. I fought with the urge to download it for about a week. thinking maybe it would just lead me to another dead end, or I wouldn’t be able to find anybody, OR that I would only meet with a bunch of creeps.
I finally caved through and downloaded it about 3 months ago now. My first few pen pals were mainly people from nearby countries, But I ended up getting ghosted by almost all of them. I began to lose faith, but never hope, that I would somehow after all these years find the friend I was looking for. Even after all of the letters I never got an answer to.
Around the end of September I sent three letters, deciding them as one of the last ones I would write for a while before I had to take a break because my heart would get excited that I would find a friend, only to ultimately have it end. (Wow poetry)
Hahah! But around 3 days later one letter was being sent back to me. I had written to this girl; although her bio didn’t give much to work with, I had a strange feeling that I should have sent a letter. And I’m so glad I did. We began exchanging letters, and although through the first she seemed very closed off and didn’t seem to have many extremist opinions, for me it was a breath of fresh air in the world that always tries to nitpick and judge.
Her letters made me think about lots of the stuff that I had taken for granted in the world, and she and I held several of the same moral values. Not only that but a few months into our correspondence, I realized she was actually very passionate about things. An extremely caring, passionate, and careful friend that would take into consideration my thoughts, my feelings, and my opinions. The word counts in our letters keep growing and I feel like I have found that friend. Someone who I can tell about my day without fear of judgment, talk about all of the ideas inside my head, and most of all, sign those letters with “Dearest” and “Sincerely.”
Thank you to the Slowly team of developers for making this possible, who I am very thankful to for helping me find the friend I always looked for, I don’t have any plans to stop sending letters, or to discard her for a personal opinion. (The letters might take longer to send though because we’ve reached over 9,000 words!!!!)
Just… if there’s anybody out there that’s like me, who feels different fundamentally from the people around, wanting true deep connection, and not superficial mind games of politeness and biting your tongue, try Slowly.
Sincerely,
Z
