do you want to learn about geography as well as delayed gratification, may I present: postcrossing

In September last year someone I follow (alas I don’t remember who) posted to their IG stories about a website called Postcrossing. I was immediately intrigued for a number of reasons:

1. It had a flavour of Ye Olde Internet™️ for which I feel a certain amount of nostalgia;
2. It promised me snail mail which I love to receive;
3. I take a walk which passes near a mailbox several times a week, making posting mail quite straightforward; and,
4. I already had a large collection of postcards which would probably like to fulfill their destiny of being mailed rather than continuing to languish in my closet.

Ok but what IS Postcrossing? It’s pretty simple: you sign up, you get an address and send a post card, you get added to a list of postcard receivers, someone else gets your address, and YOU get a postcard. Did this general scheme remind me of the chain mail letters of yore which promised a return which they naturally were unable to fulfill? Of course! And so I browsed the site and pondered and did my own research* and came to the conclusion that the site was not a big scam but was in fact a worldwide collection of nerds and I wanted a piece of that proverbial pie.

And so I sent my first postcard, which went to Germany** and then the next day CUPW declared a strike lmao. BE IT FAR FROM ME to condemn a labour action SOLIDARITY FOREVER and still I was like “dang!” Don’t worry too much though because they moved to rotating strikes and my postcard made it to Germany at which point my name was added to the pool of postcard receivers and we were off to the races!

You can have five postcards traveling in the mail at the beginning (your limit increases as the number of postcards you successfully send goes up), and it’s a 1 to 1 postcard sending to receiving sort of a situation, so at any given time I have a few postcards on their way to and away from me and pals? It is SO FUN.

It’s so fun to see the stamps and cards people choose, and when you make a profile on the site you can say what kinds of things you’re interested in, so people can write about that or send cards that feature those things. In my profile I said I like postcards from museums and now I’ve gotten to hear about a pair of sisters in Arizona who go to the local museum together a couple times a year. At first I didn’t know what on earth I was going to write to a bunch of strangers, but truly a postcard takes like two sentences and then bam: bob’s your uncle toss that bad boy in the mail box.

When you send a postcard you write a little code on it, and then the receiver inputs the code to the site and can send a little thank you message, and honestly it’s so nice! I’ve sent postcards to Germany and Ukraine and Tasmania (among others), and I’ve received cards from Japan and Slovenia and I got one today and it’s from Taiwan (also I wrote this post and then scheduled it and who knows what postcards I have received since the time of writing!).

Do I feel a smattering of trepidation about my address being Out There and randos sending me mail? Of course I do! Did I decide to trust in the milk of human kindness*** for the sake of sending bits of mail? Yes! So far it has been nothing but a delight, and there are people on there who have been on for years and years and have sent literal thousands of postcards and I feel safe among these nerds! Take a gander if you want your mailbox to be more than flyers and bills. I promise you’ll have fun even though it sometimes takes weeks for postcards to get to their various destinations. I need to invest in a cork board soon so that I may gaze upon my cards at my leisure.

*A phrase which is, unfortunately, forever tainted by people who are weirdos about getting vaccines and etc. Just get your gd shots, ok? I promise it’s better than dying of a diphtheria. Haven’t you watched Balto^? Those kids had it rough!

^tbh I kind of have beef with Balto because while YES Balto DID run the last leg of the sled journey up to Nome, Balto did NOT run the entire way as many have been made to believe. It was a huge relay effort and the dog who actually braved the most danger and ran the furthest was Togo, not Balto. Togo led his team and musher through a white out blizzard, saving them all from certain death and as for me and my house? Nothing but respect for MY lead sled dog!

**Postcrossing seems to be disproportionally popular in Germany, maybe they love mail there?

***an evocative yet icky phrase from the Bard himself.