I knew the penpals, as we used to call them, through those teen magazines in those "penpal" columns. I would send a few, probably in tens, out, and being straight, those were all guys, naturally. The hit rate would be about 10%, I think, being those who respond to my intro mail. We would then exchange personal photos, of course, the best looking ones to be exact, to impress the other end, yes, that's quite normal, isn't that so?
So, I would also filter the "interesting" penpals to keep in touch with. Those who can write better English, and shows an interesting character in their mails would be my chosen ones. Looks in their sent over pictures surely was one of the factors too.
I have at one time, kept in touch with a guy whom I had been having a "debate" quite furiously over the mails. What kind of debate, I can't really remember, but it was very exciting. We even called each other names and frantically defending and attacking at each other's nerves. We lost touch after a year or so, I think. If I can meet him again after all these years, I would be really thrilled.
Later over the years, the interest in keeping these relationships faded, but the mails writing hobby still remained.
Dawn, my friend when I was 15, sat behind me in 3 Mutiara the whole year through. She's such a nice and friendly person, she made me wonder if I was lesbian as I thought I was in love with her, really. Her mega-watt smile would light up a bad, bad moody day, and one of the reasons I loved going to school in Form 3 was partly because to see her. She made school life so looked forward to. Creepy, huh?
No, this is not a love post. Of course, other than her, I had Pauline as my best friend too, who sat next to me, and I had been admiring another girl older than me. (Quick, run far far, I'm a psycho actually)
After Form 3, we went our own ways, and we didn't see each other daily anymore, though we were still in the same school. However, amazingly we wrote each other mails quite frequently. Remember, Dawn? Or was it after SPM? I can't remember well, but I had so much fun writing to her and reading her mails. And both of us were staying in Ipoh, those were really the days.
Writing mails persisted to be a hobby of mine for years, writing to friends, my brothers, who were studying in KL, then went over to UK, and Australia. In fact, I still keep some of the mails in my big box of childhood memories.
Nowadays, what we get from the letterbox are only those typed out addressee from banks, credit cards, government bodies, lawyers, ah longs.... all whom we know are just chasing money, so we try our best not to open them.
Even friendly emails in the inbox had been reduced with the intervention of online chatting via messengers. Before that, I used to exchange damn long emails with mommies in Penang, HK, and 1-mail-to-3 from Singapore, KL and Italy.
Well this post is really irrelevant, I am just recollecting my girlhood memories, I am amazed if you are still reading... thanks anyway. Have a nice day!
1 comment:
Heck yeah I'm reading this!! I had kept those letter we wrote to each other till the day I had to leave my parents home. They were gone, yes, i'm sad, but I had no choice. You are right, tho, what we have now in the mailboxes are correspondence from credit card companies.
Hahaha, my mega-watt smile, aiyo, make me so paiseh only...i really love those days in school. 3-mutiara is not really my fav class coz all the "smartie-pants" were in that class but what was the best was having to sit with you, Pauline, Ker-Shin, Keng Fong and Adeline Ong. It was a blast...if I do not know the answers, I go to you, remember? :) I always have backups! Thanks for the memories.
Post a Comment