My New Year’s Resolution is to Handwrite More Letters

Handwriting letters is a lost art but it's one I plan to commit to this year, here's why

New Year's Resolution letter writing 2025

Photo: Pexels/cottonbro studio

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved writing letters. In a way, it’s a lot like journaling because it’s the place other than my notebook where I can be my most honest self. Unlike typing on a computer, the act of handwriting something down on paper prevents me from editing myself as I go or becoming my worst critic. The most I can do is cross or white-out mistakes but even then, I feel encouraged to let it all out, everything I’m feeling, without filters or fear of messing up. Because I know that whatever comes out is exactly what I needed to say and what the person I’m writing to needs to hear.

Not to mention that I love the whole act of putting a letter together into a neat little package. Over the years, I’ve grown more sophisticated in my letter writing pursuits, like buying cute ink stamps, postage, envelopes, stickers, and stationery. I even learned how to burn and melt wax and stamp a seal that would keep the envelope closed, which I was inspired to do after seeing one of my pen pals tie a string around their envelopes and keep it in place with their own decorative wax seal. There have been so many ways I’ve seen letters – how they’re written, what they’re written on, how they’re packaged and presented to the recipient – become a whole art form onto itself.

Throughout my life, however, I’ve never maintained a consistent relationship with letter writing. In college, I wrote postcards to my parents a few times. When we had the first major COVID-19 outbreak, I started a pen pal chain that quickly fizzled out once restrictions were lifted and phone communications seemed like a more reasonable way to keep in touch with others near and far. Last year, I wanted to again reconnect with my fun and whimsy, and reconnected with former pen pals in order to revive our practice of writing letters to one another. On top of that, my partner traveled to Italy for his study abroad program for three months, which again made clear to me the importance of having another kind of communication available to me outside of texts, calls, or even emails.

Writing letters to people I care about who can’t physically be with me or even nearby has always been incredibly important to me. But this year, I want to make it a priority because it brings me so much joy. I love choosing the perfect sheet to write in, matching the design with a corresponding colored pen. I love including goodies like stickers and tea bags in the envelopes. I like shopping for the most beautiful stamps from USPS and colored wax and stamps. I love walking to the mail box and the feeling of dropping it in the slot, knowing that another thing I’ve written is about to make its own way in the world and travel to the home of a person I hold dear to me, that they’ll get to read the words I’ve written just for them.

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It brings me closer to my community. It makes my world bigger than just my backyard. Because I’m no longer limited by the constraints of having to connect with someone in-person. I can tell my friend in Palm Desert about my day, or my friend in New York about what I’ve been reading and watching lately. I can really take a moment for myself to reflect on how I’ve been doing, what I’m feeling, and what I’m looking forward to next, and share that with someone halfway across the world from me. There is something beautiful about building solidarity and connections despite, or maybe even because, of the limits of being long-distance.

Decades ago, we wrote letters to each other because we had to, because there was no other form of communication or way of reaching another person. It would take weeks, even months. But now I write letters because I choose to, even when it would be cheaper and easier and more immediate to send someone a quick text. To me, there’s something romantic about taking your time and allowing your words the space they need to breathe and to reach their destination. It makes me feel both freer and yet more careful about the words I choose, whether I’m talking about recent exciting events in my life or what TV series I’ve been really into. It feels more permanent somehow, physical proof of your experiences, and therefore more meaningful and important, and I need more accountability in my life.

Even though I pull out all the stops for my letters, from the cutest stationery to the prettiest blend of colored wax beads and flower pieces, I don’t think you have to start out fancy in order to be anyone’s pen pal. For most, if a simple sheet of lined paper and a bank-style envelope is what you have, that’s enough to get you started. Others might work their way up from there, investing in a nice letter writing kit or special pen. But I’ve never believed in spending the most amount of money possible if it’s not for something you really want to do. Because a letter can look pretty all it wants but unless it has heart too, it won’t mean anything.

For me, I always try to be honest in my correspondence. In some ways, it functions like an off-shoot of my therapy sessions where I get to vent and ask questions about the recipient, even though I know I won’t get an answer back anytime soon. And in turn, my pen pals tell me about their hardships, emotional breakdowns, tough jobs, family issues, failures, frustrations, stresses, break-ups, and everything in between! It’s amazing what you can get down on the page when you’re not even thinking about it and I couldn’t recommend it more, even if you’re just writing a letter to yourself. Sometimes I even surprise myself, not realizing I felt or thought a certain way, and so I get to know myself better too.

There’s a lot to be excited about this year and I for one can’t wait to fully embrace my letter writing with my friends near and far.

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