My Postcrossing Anniversary

Today I realized that I've been a member of Postcrossing just over one year! Hooray!


I can hardly believe it's been that long. So far I've collected 50 postcards!  The two that have traveled the farthest are from Indonesia and Russia. (It's hard to figure out exactly how far they've come. I'm not sure if Postcrossing calculates it by heading east or west.)

The lines on this map make me think of missiles more than postcards. Maybe if everyone did a little Postcrossing we could get by with fewer missiles. Or so I'll keep dreaming.

 The postcards kind of come in waves of two or three on the same day rather than a nice even one per week, but that really doesn't bother me. I've really enjoyed finding all these surprises and seeing more of the world this way. 9/10, highly recommend, would do again. ;)
I just can't believe snail mail has gone out of style. It's different than just online friends! Online I usually immediately block strangers who try to contact me. I don't like people snooping around in what feels like my private (albeit virtual) space. With snail mail the world is both bigger and smaller. The distance is more apparent when you consider how many days you check your box waiting for something before it finally arrives. Thinking about how many hands, trucks, planes etc a postcard comes into contact with on it's way to you makes the world feel very expansive. However, reading whatever little snippet of life people choose to share makes the world feel so small. We're all just people here, and we do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same problems. I am so glad I've gotten to connect with so many people this way.