How I Found My Pen-Pals

 Greetings and salutations,

I hope this Fridays is going wonderfully for everyone. For a while now I’ve been thinking about writing a post on how to find your very own pen-pal. The thing is, I’m nowhere near the authority on pen-palling so I’ve decided to write about how I met my pen-pals, and not how everyone else does. Here are the three principle ways I met them:

1. Tumblr: Three summers ago, I was home alone and bored out of my mind. Having nothing better to do, I, of course, went online and started surfing through Tumblr. I remember seeing a post on pen pals, and decided to look up the tag through the search function. Lo and behold, I discovered several ads from Tumblr users searching for pen-pals. In fact, over the following year or so, I noticed a small snail mail movement begin. More and more people started looking for people to write to, to connect to in a non-electronic manner. Here, I met Chris, Erica, Franziska, and several others.
2. Interpals.net: This is another social network that looks to connect people all over the world, and is one of the few that is actually focused on pen-palling. It reminds me a bit of MySpace, if anyone  remembers that.
3. Through Others & Blogs: A couple of pen pals I met through other people, or through other bloggers. If you find someone’s blog and see that they have pen-pals, it doesn’t hurt to send them an ask to see if they’re still on the lookout for one more. In fact, that’s how I met Elisse!

A Few warnings: 

Before all of you run off to find your own pen buddies, I do have a few warnings. The internet is, as we’ve often been told, a very dangerous place. In Interpals, for example, I did run across a few shady individuals, and so is not my go to place. There are creeps out there, and so, I suggest chatting with the people you ask online for a while. Exchange emails, and only once you’re sure that they’re okay, and that you’ll get along, exchange emails. If someone sets your spidey senses off, back off and avoid further contact. Also, on the less scary side, if  you don’t think you might get along, don’t exchange addresses and politely go on your way. This will save you a nice bit of money on postage. (As it can be expensive depending on what you’re sending and where.)

Otherwise, have fun! And please let me know if this helps, if you have any questions, or if you  manage to find your own pen-pals! I’d love to hear back from you!

PS: this post is a really late response to Steven at Made by you and I, who asked me to post about this over a month ago. My bad for the long wait!

Have a great day!