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Post by penguy on Sept 20, 2020 5:49:37 GMT
I think it was in Junior high English when we were matched up with a class in Japan and given a pen pal to write to. I and my pen pal wrote back and forth for perhaps six months and then we stopped. Whether it was he who stopped or me I don't remember. Quite a few years later I tried sending a letter to the same address figuring perhaps it was still his family home, but no reply. I checked the internet trying to see if by chance there was anything that would make a connection, no luck. Now every once in a while I look through my correspondence log and see if there is someone I haven't heard from and try to restart our writing, figuring if thy don't want to reply that's fine but at least I've tried. Sometimes it works. I was doing a bit of browsing on youtube (that rabbit hole) and found sort of a fun story: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlZMOB-Sq0 . Have any of you had a similar experience of trying to restart a pen friendship? Any luck?
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Post by InsomniaQueen on Sept 20, 2020 7:18:03 GMT
It's funny that you mentioned this. I had two pen pals in high school - one from Australian and one from Germany. We just gradually stopped writing. I still have the letters, and I was thinking of writing to the old addresses in the hopes that someone from the family was still there and would forward the letter. I would be interested in hearing if others had success with this.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2020 9:17:25 GMT
However, there were several people I particularly regret not having written to, and still do, but felt it would be inappropriate to write to them directly as I expect they 'wrote me off' as a non starter. It bothers me if at the time, they had felt disappointed or offended that I had not written back and if I am that name on an old list with the big X next to it. Why not drop them a line anyway? The worst that can happen is that they say no thanks and don't write back I think, given your circumstances at the time, any normal person would understand why things didn't quite pan out the way you visualised and that you're not 'making excuses' (((HUGS))) I lost my brother in 1998 and it was YEARS before I could bear to talk about him or listen to any music that he used to love Six months is no time at all so, as I say, go on....give it a go....drop them a brief note and I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised And if they don't write back then that's their loss, not yours
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Post by stompie on Sept 22, 2020 10:57:06 GMT
I was doing a bit of browsing on youtube (that rabbit hole) and found sort of a fun story: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlZMOB-Sq0 . Have any of you had a similar experience of trying to restart a pen friendship? Any luck? Thanks - bawled my eyes out, what a lovely story!
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Post by distractedmom on Sept 22, 2020 18:25:57 GMT
What a wonderful story! I had a Japanese pen pal when I was in junior high (late 1980s.) Her name was Misa Mochizuki but I don’t even have an address to begin looking. Maybe I need to dig a little deeper into my treasure chest of mementos to see if I can find an address.
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Post by vertolive on Sept 22, 2020 20:10:58 GMT
I don't have any pen pal relationships older than the past decade. There have been three writers that mentioned struggling with depression who have all dropped out of sight. I've tried re-starting each of them but only one wrote back once or twice and then stopped again. I imagine it just became too much for them while struggling through the hip deep mud that is depression.
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Post by although on Sept 22, 2020 23:01:50 GMT
Okay... Fair enough... That video was a real tear jerker *sniff*
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Post by MKB on Sept 23, 2020 0:27:13 GMT
Holy smokes. Thanks!
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Post by InsomniaQueen on Sept 23, 2020 7:36:41 GMT
It's funny that you mentioned this. I had two pen pals in high school - one from Australian and one from Germany. We just gradually stopped writing. I still have the letters, and I was thinking of writing to the old addresses in the hopes that someone from the family was still there and would forward the letter. I would be interested in hearing if others had success with this. Have you decided yet if you are going to drop them a line? If so, let us know if you hear back and how that works out for you. *fingers crossed* I will be undertaking the journey through my storage closet in November when I seek out and capture my christmas decorations. I will have to unearth the letters then. I will alert everyone when I go in so that you can alert the authorities if I haven't been heard from in a timely manner.
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Post by motsamicaux on Sept 25, 2020 2:35:10 GMT
...Have any of you had a similar experience of trying to restart a pen friendship? Any luck? I just contacted a pen pal who I haven't heard from in just over a year. Turns out a letter wasn't delivered.... Well, at least now we both have a lot to write about to each other!
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Post by emeraldscribbles on Sept 27, 2020 14:26:41 GMT
What a sweet video; now I'm at work trying not to tear up I've lost contact with a few penpals over the past few years when they have stopped writing, and I would send a letter that would eventually be returned to me. My best experience is from InCo this year: I wrote to some penpals I had as a kid (20+ years ago) that correspondence had disappeared with. Two actually wrote me back! One was a penpal from Germany that I had written to several times, and the shocker was I received a letter from one girl in Spain who had only written me a single letter when we were kids. It was nice to hear from them and find out how they were doing now, as adults.
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