It’s a personal choice, in the same way as the age or gender of your new friend might be. On the flip side, you learn all about another culture and country, and you could help your friend with English, or they could teach you some phrases in their native language. This is entirely up to you, as it depends what you are wanting from your friendship international pen-palling means longer gaps between letters, and possible language barriers. In case you need another reason, it is also a good excuse to frequently use your favourite pens! Inland or international? Also, who doesn’t love coming home to find a lovely, handwritten envelope on their doormat? So exciting. There is something really special about someone taking the time to write and send you a handwritten letter, and I feel like you connect in a way quite unlike any other. When you open communications with another individual, you can not only share with them – perhaps things you may not want to share with those closer to you – but you can also learn all about them, their lives, their passions, their frustrations, and their culture.

Even better than that, writing in an emotional manner can help you address any issues you may have, and the narrative you create helps you to deal with and then forget the event that has been bothering you.

Writing can be very therapeutic studies have shown that writing about thoughts, feelings and events, gets the writer deeply involved, meaning you forget about your daily frustrations. ‘Real life’ takes over, and we prioritise in a way which categorises writing to a pen pal as unimportant – ‘after all’, some may ask themselves, ‘what would I get out of it’? Read on… Why write to a pen pal?Ĭommunicating with a penfriend can be so rewarding, it really is worth considering – whatever stage of life you are at, and however busy your life is. Some of us may have written to other pen pals as we got older, but generally, as we work on studying, building our careers, having children, or chasing our dreams, writing to a pen pal becomes seen as less of a priority. Come to think of it, I don’t recall it being particularly encouraged.įor those of us where a continuation was encouraged, most will have stopped after a short while. This was when I was 10 years old, and not one of us continued the friendship. In my case, we each sent a Christmas card to an allocated child in a class in France. For many of us, our ‘pen-palling’ journey started and ended at primary school, when our teachers organised for us to exchange a letter with a child in another school.

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