Sounds Greek To You? Not To Me!
It was the year 1994. I joined this international organization for young people where you get an opportunity to make friends, through writing, with another person specially selected for you based on your preferences as to his/her age, gender, location and interests. As an added bonus, your name/address may be forwarded to another person seeking a penfriend. This was a heaven-sent chance for me as I've always wanted to know, and maybe meet, someone from another country.
So there I was filling up the colorful application form. At that time, one carries the risk of it not becoming a reality--meaning, not getting any reply from the organization because of "possible" problems in the payment. But, voila! A reply was received and there I was reading my 1st penfriend's name and address over and over. Not a day was wasted and I wrote my first letter to her, making sure I didn't have any misspelled words or grammatical errors. And finally, I mailed it hoping my precious letter reaches Greece.
They said I'd have to wait for 3 to 6 months for a reply. But hey! I received a letter from Greece within a week! Wow, that was fast for snail mail! But hey, again! I couldn't recognise the return address on the small envelop. Who cares, anyway? It was for me so I read it and felt like I was weightless with glee! Somebody from halfway across the globe wants me to be her penfriend. She wrote,
In case you do not wish to correspond, please give my address to a friend of yours who would like to write.
Why would I give her away? Why would I wanna do that? This was what we used to call a "surprise penfriend", one of the perks of joining the organization. I was too willing to be her penfriend and that night I wrote a reply. You know what she sent me in her 2nd letter? A birthday card, 2 packs of candies, a casette tape recording, a letter and a small album where she placed a picture of her! The joy I felt was so overwhelming I couldn't help but show it to all of my buddies.
That was the start of it all. We exchanged letters, gifts, photos, postcards and casette tapes (although, I think I've only sent her 1). We talked about each other's family and our life as students. This went on for about 5 more years. The number of letters sent and received gradually decreased each year as both of us became so busy. She went to a University. I started to work. We both got so busy that there was a lull in the correspondence. I forgot how we started again but this time, we used email. She once called me on my birthday and that was the first time I heard her voice! But again we lost track of each other. On her birthday, I tried calling her mobile number but I couldn't understand the person on the other line. I was about to give up when, in a last attempt, I texted that, "I just wanted to greet Angie a happy birthday". I got this simple reply, I will call you So I waited. And she did call me! We talked for quite awhile as we both missed talking to each other. She gave me her new address and-- fast forward to the present --now we are catching up on things and trying to hold on to this precious treasure that we call "FRIENDSHIP". This may not be the typical friendship everyone is familiar with but it sure is doubly special for me. You know why? Because deep down I know, and am happy, that she considers me her friend after all these years and that she's willing to spend the time and effort to make it last. We've never really met (she visited my relatives who went to Greece in 1997) but we are both hoping (for me it's more like dreaming!) to see each other. Right now, I am content in knowing that, in the 11 years we've communicated, I found a wonderful and thoughtful friend in Angie.
You may be wondering what happened to the letter I sent to the 'other' Greek penfriend. Did she ever receive it? Did she reply? Did we become penfriends? There is only 1 answer to all these and it is: Yes. BUT...it didn't last. It ended in the year 1995.
So there I was filling up the colorful application form. At that time, one carries the risk of it not becoming a reality--meaning, not getting any reply from the organization because of "possible" problems in the payment. But, voila! A reply was received and there I was reading my 1st penfriend's name and address over and over. Not a day was wasted and I wrote my first letter to her, making sure I didn't have any misspelled words or grammatical errors. And finally, I mailed it hoping my precious letter reaches Greece.
They said I'd have to wait for 3 to 6 months for a reply. But hey! I received a letter from Greece within a week! Wow, that was fast for snail mail! But hey, again! I couldn't recognise the return address on the small envelop. Who cares, anyway? It was for me so I read it and felt like I was weightless with glee! Somebody from halfway across the globe wants me to be her penfriend. She wrote,
In case you do not wish to correspond, please give my address to a friend of yours who would like to write.
Why would I give her away? Why would I wanna do that? This was what we used to call a "surprise penfriend", one of the perks of joining the organization. I was too willing to be her penfriend and that night I wrote a reply. You know what she sent me in her 2nd letter? A birthday card, 2 packs of candies, a casette tape recording, a letter and a small album where she placed a picture of her! The joy I felt was so overwhelming I couldn't help but show it to all of my buddies.
That was the start of it all. We exchanged letters, gifts, photos, postcards and casette tapes (although, I think I've only sent her 1). We talked about each other's family and our life as students. This went on for about 5 more years. The number of letters sent and received gradually decreased each year as both of us became so busy. She went to a University. I started to work. We both got so busy that there was a lull in the correspondence. I forgot how we started again but this time, we used email. She once called me on my birthday and that was the first time I heard her voice! But again we lost track of each other. On her birthday, I tried calling her mobile number but I couldn't understand the person on the other line. I was about to give up when, in a last attempt, I texted that, "I just wanted to greet Angie a happy birthday". I got this simple reply, I will call you So I waited. And she did call me! We talked for quite awhile as we both missed talking to each other. She gave me her new address and-- fast forward to the present --now we are catching up on things and trying to hold on to this precious treasure that we call "FRIENDSHIP". This may not be the typical friendship everyone is familiar with but it sure is doubly special for me. You know why? Because deep down I know, and am happy, that she considers me her friend after all these years and that she's willing to spend the time and effort to make it last. We've never really met (she visited my relatives who went to Greece in 1997) but we are both hoping (for me it's more like dreaming!) to see each other. Right now, I am content in knowing that, in the 11 years we've communicated, I found a wonderful and thoughtful friend in Angie.
You may be wondering what happened to the letter I sent to the 'other' Greek penfriend. Did she ever receive it? Did she reply? Did we become penfriends? There is only 1 answer to all these and it is: Yes. BUT...it didn't last. It ended in the year 1995.
posted by Giggle at 8:45 PM
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