Letter Writing
Letter writing to me is an essential form of communication. It’s more than just words on paper, mailed in an envelope. It’s correspondence, it’s love, it’s history, all of those things and more. It means more than just a text message or an e-mail. Time was put into that letter, pieces of that person who wrote it coming through on the page via handwriting, doodles, etc. Letter writing to me means permanence in an ever-changing world. That physical piece of paper is a moment in time, full of history, thoughts, and emotions. Though the moment has passed once the envelope is sealed, your words are forever out there, ready to be shared with the recipient. Letters mean the world to me, with their special place in our digital age. To write and to receive a letter is to love, not only just your sender or recipient, but also the world who allowed such a beautiful art to exist.
In this course, I’m excited to examine historical letters and how their preservation impacts history and the modern view of historical events. They truly do open up a first-hand look into that time from a wide variety of perspectives. I’m also looking forward to writing letters myself, because as a previous camper at a sleep away camp, I loved sending and receiving letters myself, as it was my only correspondence with the world outside of camp. Now that I’m no longer a camper, and don’t have a need for letters while there, I’d like to get back into writing them, whether that is to myself or friends and family. I kind of view letters as gifts, and my love language is definitely gift-giving. As for my concerns, it’s mostly just workload as I try to adjust to college life and handle all of my management myself. I’d say I’ve always been good at organization and time management, but in a different environment without reminders from external sources, I am concerned with how my habits might change.
My Writing Process
With my writing process, I enjoy that I’m able to just have a complete stream of consciousness when writing. If you give me a prompt, or if I have something I’d really like to get out on the page, I usually just start running with it, full sprint down the track. Also, because I have a lot of practice as a writer from a young age, I am quite good at self-editing while in the process of writing and drafting, making the process quite streamlined for me. I think I would like to improve upon my out-of-class practice of writing. While I write well in class and for schoolwork, I’d like to implement more journaling techniques and creative writing into my daily or weekly schedules to free my mind more regularly. Sometimes, I have ideas or feelings that I sit on for long periods, and I would like to open them into the wider, but sometimes more personal, world. As for how I would like to grow as a writer, I’d like to become more thoughtful and analytical in my writing, while also expressing my personal creativity in the same pieces.
