Around this time last year was when I received my first postcard from a stranger. 12 months later, I am sending my 33th postcard to a 33th stranger, and counting.
A collection of some of the postcards I have received in the past year
I first heard about Postcrossing from my older sister, who one day showed me her collection of twenty-or-so postcards that she had received from strangers from all across the world. Postcrossing is a website that randomly matches you with another user's profile & their postal address, when you choose to do so. And every time you choose to 'request' an address, somewhere else in the world, another user will receive your postal address as the destination of their next postcard. The sender's address is never revealed, so that in a way there is no strings attached; you send out a postcard to a stranger without expecting the recipient to keep the conversation going.
My older sister collected the postcards because she liked the variety in postcard and stamp designs. I was fascinated by the stories behind their authors - who were they? What kind of lived did they lead? So I jumped onto the bandwagon.
A Glimpse into Someone Else's Life
As of now I have received 32 postcards, and some of which really stood out to me. One of which was written by an Ukrainian mother who was living in Poland at the time due to the Russian-Ukrainian War. I found it commendable that she was able to keep up the hobby of writing postcards, or the desire to connect with strangers, when she was going through a difficult time and being away from home. But perhaps a hobby was precisely what we need in trying times, in order for us to have a sense of normalcy and maintain our identity?
A postcard from Sveta, an Ukrainian refugee
Postcrossing allows users to write about themselves in their profile - the information that we share can be used to prompt future senders with topics to write about, postcard preferences, etc.. It is always nice to meet a likeminded person who might be living halfway across the world. I like to prompt my senders to write about their day and recent life events, and I have enjoyed the process of composing a message to someone whom I never thought I would have any common topic with. For an introvert like me, writing postcards also felt like a good practice to become better at making small talk.
I have also come across users who have received and sent over 8000 postcards over the course of 10 years (that's an average of writing 2~3 postcards a day!) which always baffle me - although they do tend to write very short and simple messages, but the cost of postage of postcards surely add up...
The Slippery Slope of Stamp Collecting
Sending postcards naturally requires having a collection of postcards at hand, because even the post offices don't sell postcards. In my case, my collection of postcards is accumulated from gift shops of the few towns and cities I have visited, or independent artist stalls at a comic convention or markets.
Post stamps on the other hand, can be purchased both at the post office or online. Royal Mail regularly issues special stamps, some of which can be quite artistic and generally attractive, whilst some others can appeal to people with more specific interests. Whenever I popped over to my local post office to get some last-minute stamps, it was always the luck of the draw with which stamp the postal clerk would choose to tear off from the book of stamps - I've been given stamps ranging from Aardman Animations and Warhammer, to Iron Maiden and the British Royal Navy. Of course, with the especially nice (this is subjective) and versatile collections such as the Terry Prachett's Discworld issue, where each stamp was so well illustrated and told a story of their own, I just had to purchase the collection online, so I could use them if I ever come across a postcrossing user that mentions an interest in art or fantasy novels.
I love the feeling of going through my collection of postcards and stamps to find the ones that I think best match the personality of my next recipient (solely based on the information they have provided on their profile description), but after a year of going into this hobby, I find myself with more postcards than I probably will ever use, and many stamps at odd values. So in the sense, I have ended up hoarding postcards and stamps, something that I never thought I would do.
A Surprise in the Mail Box
It is a wonderful feeling to check your mailbox and to find an unexpected postcard addressed to you by a stranger from an unexpected origin. I find myself to subconsciously open up my mailbox every time I leave home for a grocery shop, and it has become a sort of inconsistent consistency that I look forward to, sometimes hidden between local advertisement flyers and passive aggressive TV licence letters.
Final thoughts
Although I said earlier that sending postcards on Postcrossing is quite one-sided, but when you meet the right people you could also end up in a back-and-forth message chain with them on the website, or even become more long-term penpals who send each other candy wrappings and letters.
I have truly enjoyed writing and receiving postcards in the past one year, and I don't think I will let go of this hobby for a while.
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