glasses & grenades: Snail Mail My Email

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Snail Mail My Email

Earlier this year I came across the Facebook page for Snail Mail My Email and immediately "liked" it. At the time I didn't realize it was an annual project but when I saw the post a month ago that they were accepting volunteers, I immediately signed up. Then a few weeks went by without any word. I honestly thought they had filled all the spots or didn't choose me for some reason. Then I got an email about a week before the project started that I was indeed a volunteer. All the high fives!

Being that this was my first time, I had no idea what to expect. I was a little confused on the letters themselves. At first I thought we'd get emails and then just reply to them however we pleased but after some clarification I learned the volunteers strictly transcribe the words of a stranger and send it to whomever they choose. I was pumped either way! I even went to the Post Office on my lunch break to buy "fun" stamps. I ended up with Batman and Circus Posters since they were out of Harry Potter. I was ready to go!

Then on Monday morning I received my very first letter-email. Throughout the week it was so fun for me to wake up in the morning and check my phone to see what letter I'd be doing when I got home from work. The letters varied from romantic, friend to friend, parent to child, child to parent, and I had quite a few Santa letters. The emails displayed where the letter needed to be sent, special instructions (doodle, flower petal, custom), and the letter itself. I loved any time someone requested a custom doodle. For example, the letter below to Matt requested "dire wolves, dragons, Game of Thrones, Etc." so thankfully Dustin helped me out on that one. I'm not much of an artist. I'm creative yes, but I have never seen myself as an artist even though I enjoy painting, drawing, etc. The hardest part was writing letters in a different language. Those took forever because I kept messing up. Ha! But Dustin helped me find a translator so I kind of understood what they were trying to say. It was an incredible feeling to be on the inside of these people's lives for just one letter. It was emotional.

I received a total of 19 letters and sent out 18 (because one of them had a weird address so I sent it to my administrator). I still haven't heard if they were able to figure it out. As much fun as I had with this project I had no idea what it would do to me physically. My middle finger, hand, and forearm was incredibly stiff and sore after a few days into writing. I sliced the tip of my finger open with scissors. AND I messed up my hip. Yeah, my fucking hip. It's like I'm 85 years old. The thing is, I like sitting on the floor, with my torso bent forward while creating these letters and since I was sitting like that for hours each night my body could only take so much. But even with all of my ridiculous ailments I have no regrets. It was so neat to be one of hundreds of volunteers. I put a smile on 18+ faces because who doesn't like receiving snail mail randomly from someone who loves you? That feels really good. This year was the biggest year for SMME with over 7,000 submissions. So many that they had to close the project down 2 days early so the volunteers wouldn't get overwhelemd!

Send more letters, postcards, random packages.

Don't get caught up in text.

Send something with handwriting, stamps, scents.

Something you can hold in your hands.

Something that took real effort, time, and money.