It’s not a newsworthy realization that I’m obsessed with savoring words. I’ve saved hard copies of letters, poems, school papers, worksheets, doodles, journals, song lyrics (Am I missing anything?).
Whenever I’m bored or sad or nostalgic, I leaf through these papers. My eyes alert my head which sends signal to my heart, and the moments feel real and pure again.
But now, as a blogger, and someone who continues to further their education in all things social media, I have a new appreciation for virtual keepsake–technology as a vital and central plugin to the past.
Earlier today, I was left in a situation most of us dread: stuck in the airport with a flight delayed two hours. Too cheap to pay for WiFi, I began digging through my hard drive the same way I do those papers.
What did I find? Letters. A letter written to my roommates that I never gave to them, saying goodbye after what might be the best year of my life thus far. Individual letters written to my 6 best friends while abroad, confessing my love and deep appreciation for each of them.
Virtual doesn’t mean less personal. To me, it’s all in the words, the feelings captured on the page or screen at hand.
Now, as I take advantage of the free WiFi on my flight, I am able to brush away the dirt, to uncover even more of those memories and emotion, through a somewhat surprising venue.
People don’t think of facebook as a locale for love and communication, but it really is. If you actually pay attention to the conversations, the words, you will see that people are connecting in an absolutely critical way.
This afternoon I received a wall post from one of the recipients of the aforementioned letters. Someone I have not heard from in a long time, besides through the land of social networking.
I felt happy and grateful to hear from him, and thus decided to read our wall-to-wall. What I received in exchange for this decision was wonderful: a written tribute to the two years we’ve known each other, the four years we spent in Europe, the inside jokes, the good times, and the really fucking difficult ones.
It’s no wonder I’m becoming addicted to facebook and twitter; they’re just another means at holding onto what we have.
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Twitter: alexisgrant
March 27, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I’m with you! I have a folder in my mail account called “Thoughts,” where I file letters to good friends that I want to be able to look back at later. In fact, these letters are ones I probably wouldn’t have written had I had to mail them with a stamp — so in that way, I’d argue digital communication is better for keepsakes!
.-= Alexis Grant’s last blog ..Writers’ Roundup: March 26 =-.
Now we just have to hope our hard drives don’t crash!
Actually, it’s more than that. When my college e-mail expired, I was frantic trying to forward on all the e-mails I wanted to save…