Once in a while, when birthdays come up or the holidays, I think to myself: I should really write some cards and letters. I toy with this thought for too long to send it before the right occasion and then let it simmer for a while. Then, I am suddenly hit by a wave of motivation and start writing letters, folding origami, making use of all the paper I had bought for this purpose. But then I need to find the addresses, go to the post office to actually send it and then wait in agony for happy messages from my friends to old news. And oftentimes, I will send it 3 months after the first time I wrote the card or letter, so I add an addendum.

All in all, it is quite clear I like the idea of writing letters and cards more than actually doing it. At the same time, I do really enjoy the process, and especially in China and Asian countries there is a plethora of cute cards, stickers and letter paper to choose from.

I remember that before I went to China, I looked for letter paper in the Netherlands. When I was younger and pen friends were still a thing, there was a lot to choose from. Not anymore in like 2014. I held onto the few pieces of paper I had like they were treasures.

Then I moved to China, traveled to Japan, Taiwan and South-Korea and was overwhelmed by the choices available. I stocked up enough origami paper to last me 10 years, spent hours in stationery stores picking and choosing paper, bought packages of cute cards to send out.

I am now slowly making my way to actually using up all that stuff I bought at a whim. Once I put my mind to it and sent it all out, it is quite fulfilling. Even writing the stuff and reading back what I wrote if I am adding a letter is kind of fun. And it is basically the only reason I have to write Chinese by hand.

So anyway, I probably would not thrive in the real analog era, but pretending to be a ‘real’ writer from time to time works out fine.