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Dear Slowly Developers
I’m not a big believer of social media. I have personal lines to communicate to people I’m close with, but that’s it. I haven’t been active in the mainstream social media, since they’re a constant reminder that I live within an endless stream of information noises. And though I have my fair share of great friends, it could be draining for all the non-meaningful talks I have to get through every day. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a deep conversation with someone. Between all the super-fast chats and the gossips, maybe somewhere along the way, people lost the art of communicating 😥
Anyway, the one distinctive thing about me is that I love letters, more than anything. I write letters whenever I have something to say but I couldn’t find the courage to tell them out loud (which actually happens a lot). In random times, to random friends (they’ll occasionally get my letters). I even still do snail mail to my closest families. In this world of instant messaging, letters are like an oasis to just stop time and savors the moments and also memories.
For me receiving a letter is a sign that someone truly sit and took their time and energy to think about you. It isn’t just a burst in the moment or rushed texting, it conveys personality, emotional depth, and detail. In the other hand, sending a letter is like giving out a tiny piece of yourself. It takes a great deal of courage to let them know your thoughts about them.
To people I know directly, letters are a bit like historical artifacts. You can always go back and reread them, just to hear their voice in the words again, and imagine how they’d say each phrases. When you save them and treasure them, you preserve a part of that person, their words, and their relationship with you. Could you see how beautiful that is? 😊
That is a letter to me, a place where I can find pieces of my heart turned to words I didn’t know if I could ever say out loud. For me letters are the single most personal gift someone could ever give. Up until now, letters never fail to make me smile so big my lips hurts. and voila, then came Slowly. You can’t imagine how glad I was when I found Slowly. It was like finding an answer to my old-as-time question I’ve been asking myself forever. And since the 9 months I’ve wandered here, this has been an amazing experience all around. It gave me so much more than what I expected it to. The waiting, the nervousness, the excitement, ah it never ends with all the feels…
I started like a child with their newest toy, I sent lots of letters to random people all over the world to see if there are someone with a same thought with me. And whoa, I realized that I’ve never been this happy. It’s such an awesome feeling to see a notification that a letter is being sent from a faraway land. It cheered up my days and I have something to look forward to every morning 😁. It’s not surprising that after a month using this, I already found some of the best pals I could ever asked for. Slowly opens up so many possibilities to connect with people we thought would never meet in real life. And it’s beautiful to know so.
I actually have many memorable letters that I want to share to you in this story, but I don’t know where to start. All I can say is that I usually write long letters, a really long one. My letters are about 2000-6000 words, so you could say that I take letters seriously and that I’m quite intense. To the right person, I could really write anything here without a restraint and fear of rejection, from basic info like hobbies and hometown, to a very deep personal secret and philosophical inquiries. I can even talk about absolutely random things like the history of ice cream or how to help a cat in labor without me being afraid of petty judgement. And also Slowly has the best system of an avatar! Such a cute way to make a representation of what we look like in real life. It’s lovely because we usually are judged from mere appearance and sometimes thing as simple as a profile picture, Slowly offers us to be comfortable in each other through words and thoughts written.
When we pour ourselves in these letters we sent, it feels like falling love slowly (pun intended) and then all at once, between all the words, the thoughts, and every emotions attached to these letters. I fell in love with the sincerity, the honesty, and the acceptance that everyone brings to the table every time I receive a reply. And boy, does it feel so liberating. So I would like to say thank you to all the Slowly Developers that have been working so hard for this application to come true. In this era that makes us feel lonely in a sea of crowds, you give us an opportunity to sit by ourselves and yet also feel meaningful connection and to genuinely interact to each other in a unique way. I feel grateful that somehow your app stumbles upon my suggestion in the Play Store, it was life-changing. Hope you can continue to touch many many hearts and even more lives as you did to me 🥰
Happily,
A big fan
PS: to all the fellow Slowly users, I hope you find the pleasant jolt of joy in writing letters as I always do. Writing letters may require your time and devotion, but it’s all worth it once you find someone who appreciate you and reply you with the same (if not more) intensity. And if you don’t know how to start, I encourage you to write anything that you want people to know about you. It is not that hard once you really start. Good luck and have fun!
PPS: Special thanks to all my dear friends here who have been such wonderful companions and for taking me everywhere without ever needing to step my feet away from my house. And hereby, I enclose my biggest hug to all of my pen pals: thank you Simon, Asif, Danil, Porscha, Megsy, Georg, Jordan, and Patra whom I learn so soooo much from. And also thank you very much Nic and James for such thoughtful postcards from half a world away. Thank you Samir for all the movie nights and the late night discussions. Thank you Han for writing me a cute Slowly Story, the Jasmine drawing, and the 1997 little Han Solo. And to Z, thank you for travelling approximately 900 km and for the little blue pin you gave me when we first met (I attached the picture below), it was awesome (yes, I did have a meet up with someone from Slowly!). I’m so glad I had the chance to know you all, it’s been an honor to be your correspondence ❤
a little blue pin from a friend
