Originally written in Italian, translated by OpenAI.
I never imagined that a pen pal app could change my life.
When I downloaded Slowly in the autumn of 2019, what now feels like a lifetime ago, I was simply looking for someone to talk to and share my thoughts with. I had no expectations. I thought I would exchange a few letters, meet some interesting people, and then, as so often happens online, it would all end there.
Instead, one of those letters became the beginning of the most meaningful friendship I have ever experienced.
For years, we wrote to each other without rushing, respecting the waiting time—even though, in our case, it was usually quite short. Within the first year, our mailboxes were overflowing with dozens upon dozens of letters every week. And what a wonderful feeling it was to know that, somewhere out there, someone had taken the time to sit down, reflect, and carefully choose words meant just for you.
In a world where everything is instant, Slowly taught us the value of waiting and the power of words. There was no need for photos, no room for showing off, vanity, or insecurity. For the first time, I had the chance to connect with a soul, and nothing else.
We shared our fears, dreams, failures, and achievements. We told each other about the most ordinary days as well as the most important moments of our lives. We went through university exams, life changes, new relationships, personal crises, moving to new places, doubts about the future, and even difficult periods of silence. Sometimes it felt as though we were growing up together, despite living miles apart.
Over time, I realized that some people can come to know you more deeply through words than many ever could by looking into your eyes.
Our letters grew into the hundreds. Even today, each one holds a small piece of who we were. We built a language of our own, woven from metaphors, music, films, shared memories, and jokes that only we could understand. Without even realizing it, we had created a little home made of digital paper and Beatles songs.
Of course, it wasn’t always easy. Like every meaningful relationship, ours went through difficult times. Life moves on. People change. Priorities change. The balance between two people changes. Sometimes you grow in the same direction; sometimes you don’t. And that’s okay.
Unfortunately, our story didn’t end the way we had hoped.
For a long time, I believed that meant everything else had been meaningless. Today, I no longer believe that.
Now I think the beauty of a friendship doesn’t depend solely on how it ends.
Some encounters change you, even if they don’t last forever.
That person taught me how to truly listen, how to write with sincerity, and how to look at the world with greater curiosity and reason.
If I am a different person today, part of the credit belongs to those letters.
That’s why I can never think of Slowly as just another app.
To me, it was—and still is—the place where two strangers met without knowing they would change the course of each other’s lives, for better and for worse.
Perhaps that is Slowly’s greatest gift: reminding us that the deepest connections are not always born from geographical closeness, but from patience, listening, and the courage to be vulnerable, regardless of how the story ends.
I don’t know if every story that begins here is meant to last. Mine wasn’t.
And yet, if I could go back, I would write that very first letter exactly the same way.
Some people enter our lives for only a part of the journey, but believe me—that part alone is enough.
