Something to Talk About...

No one talks anymore. It's true. And when I say that...I mean much more than through phone calls. Yes, we text. We tweet. We subtweet. We send messages through our Facebook statuses. We have phone calls here and there. But even then so many things get left out. I think often of the many people in my life who I probably dont know basic things about...like...where they grew up or what their favorite color is. It made me think back to this thing we did when I was in school: pen pals. Ha. I remember pen pals was the coolest thing in the world to me. I remember mine from elementary school...her name was Garvey and she lived in Germany. She put stickers all over her letters and made her "l's" funny. I never though to ask how the heck she learned how to speak and write in English...but I loved getting her letters. She told me about her life and her dog and her family...she also told me about the music she was listening to...which to my 4th grade surprise was the same music I was listening to. It was amazing. I can see those letters so clearly in my mind. So recently I started thinking about why that was so amazing. I think what affected me the most was getting to truly know about another person...and also being able to share my life with someone. We don't do that anymore...we just don't have to. We get to gloss over...abbreviate...or simply leave out parts. And I think that's played a direct part in the lack of true connections in our generation. I know it's what we all subconsciously crave... but no one takes chances anymore. It's a risk to share who you are with someone...even if its a complete stranger. I have no idea where Garvey is now...she's probably somewhere blogging and listening to The Script's cd in its entirety (she had a lot in common with me so I'm going to just say we're doing the same things)...but one thing's for sure...I am glad that she was my pen pal...she taught me the importance of communication. Communication helps with learning, learning promotes growth. Growth begets healthy relationships. Healthy relationships equals happier people. See? Get a pen pal. Trust me. It helps.