Bring Back Letter Writing

Brightonian Staff

We live in a time when letter writing is not only uncommon, but it is almost unheard of, especially among teenagers. However, we propose that we bring it back!

Do you remember the joy you feel when you get mail? Like, real, legitimate mail. Not an advertisement for the armed forces, or a mailer from college, or even that random letter inviting you to church. We mean an actual piece of mail that someone who knows you took the time to write to you, put your address on it, put a stamp on it, and mail it.

We wrote about this in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic (see that article here), but with the pandemic ending (hopefully), we thought it might be a good idea to remind you that if you started writing letters during the pandemic you should continue doing so. And if you haven’t started, you should.

Writing letters takes time, and we know that many teenagers complain that they do not have time, but really stop and think about that. How much time do you spend on social media, whether that is Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, or whatever else? If you took just twenty minutes away from that, you could spend that time writing a letter. That letter will let someone truly know that you care about them.

So where do you start?

First, choose the person that you want to write a letter to. It can be an old friend from elementary school, your favorite aunt or uncle, your grandma or grandpa, or even your best friend who lives three blocks away. That is the beauty of writing a letter. You can write it to anyone.

Second, find a nice piece of paper. It does not have to be a piece of stationary (although that is a nice touch). Just find a piece of paper.

Third, start writing. Now, we know that this is probably the most difficult part. What do you write about? You will probably spend more time agonizing over this over anything else, but it does not have to be that difficult.

Here are some options:

1. Write about your day. (Even if you see your letter recipient on a regular basis, writing about your day can inspire other things to write about.)

2. Write about what you like best in your life right now.

3. Write about the most interesting thing about your hometown. (We know…Brighton…but we also know that there are some cool stories about what happens in Brighton. Teenagers are creative people who find all sorts of things to do in Brighton.)

4. Write about what you envision your school year to be like. (And then in subsequent letters you can write about what it is actually like.)

5. Write about the favorite people you interact with. Or your favorite class. Or your favorite activity.

The key is to start writing. And then keep writing. And hopefully the person you write a letter to will be inspired to write you back. And then maybe you will be inspired to write to more people.