Today is my 11th anniversary as a member of Postcrossing, the worldwide postcard exchange organization. On this day over a decade ago, I began a hobby that has become a core ritual in my daily life. As it satisfies my old fashioned proclivities, I get a glimpse of life in foreign countries, and a taste of travel while not leaving home. It is now a crucial routine of my day: usually early each morning, I sit at my desk and draw five random addresses from the Postcrossing web page to which I will send a postcard. My inventory of postcards has grown over the years as I try to maintain a broad selection of cards to suit the tastes of the day's recipients. It is a quiet and contemplative start to my day as I write each postcard, affix a combination of stamps, and otherwise mark and decorate the card before dropping it off at the local post office on my way to work. That's also when I pick up the cards I've received from other Postcrossers, and take them home to register in the system while reading the message from each sender. During the time reading and writing postcards, I sometimes imagine living in a simpler time when communication between individuals was more tangible and personal, more direct and meaningful.
Now as a senior member of Postcrossing, I've racked up some impressive statistics. There are 804,490 Postcrossing members worldwide, and 74,371 in the USA. In terms of number of postcards sent, I rank 28th among all USA members, and I rank #1 among the 827 members in Alabama. In the past eleven years, I have sent 9,733 postcards, and received 9,687. I currently send about 100 each month and have exchanged cards with 114 different countries in total. I think I may actually stick with this hobby for a while!
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| Outgoing mail Postcrossing postcards |
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