I adore physical letters, they have a certain charm that a text or an email just doesn’t. They always feel personal — especially since you can read the sender’s handwriting, however fancy or messy.

“My favorite thing about physical letters is how much impact they have and how permanent they are,” said Siena Tipton, a Gallatin first-year. “Everything over text and emails feels so fleeting, but having a physical declaration of someone’s love and appreciation for you is such a wonderful feeling.”

Receiving letters from people is like having a little piece of them with you, and the same goes for sending letters to your friends — you’re giving someone else a little piece of yourself. CAS first-year Anna-Dmitry Muratova thinks there’s something really beautiful in writing letters.

“There’s something about just holding this letter from a person I love in my hands,” Muratova said. “A text message can be precious, for sure. But with a letter — they wrote it, it’s their pen on the paper that they bought. When I miss someone, and those I miss are my recipients, letters from them make me feel like they’re closer than they actually are.”

Gallatin first-year Charlie Dodge feels the same way.

“I love to use physical letters and postcards to talk to my family because I like the idea of them being able to have a physical thing to hold on to,” Dodge said. “Text and email [both] work, but they’re very temporary.”

I’ve never written a letter in my life, so I was curious what people would even talk about when they send out letters. If anything was pressing, a text or a phone call would be the route to get a quick response.

“Usually when I write letters to my friends, it’s to tell them how much I love them and what I miss about them,” Tipton said. “Others are just monthly updates on our life. I usually write letters to people that I don’t talk to every day but don’t want to fall out of touch with.”

Although Muratova also sends their writing buddies life updates, they always leave them a surprise inside. “All of my letters include polaroids of the places I talk about,” Muratova said. “Another thing we do is exchanging our favorite books through mail — it’s so fun.”

Pictures also aren’t the only item you can use to accompany your letters. Some students, like Dodge, love to send a little piece of their art with each letter.

“I feel like hand-writing letters and hand-painting postcards are a much more accurate snapshot of certain moments in time,” Dodge said.

I don’t know about you guys, but hearing all about letters makes me want to run to the nearest store and buy a pack of stamps to send letters to my favorite people back home.

Email Theodore Ravago at [email protected].