You Got Mail(s)

M not talking about the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie. M talking about letters. Don't you just love the old fashion method of communication (writing letters I mean, not knocking bottles..haha).

12 years back, I was in this penpal program and from there, I managed to get few penpals. I got several from the neighbouring country - Malaysia, 1 from Hong Kong and 1 from Cyprus. And as I grew older and getting to know the world and internet (haha!), I have/had a friend from Lebanon. But somehow, I changed, I think. Coz after 2001, I stopped writing and the letters stopped arriving! Well, I thought it's them who had changed and forget me but then I realised that if 1 of them stopped writing, it might be his/her side that changed. But when I didn't received any letters from any of my penpal, I know that m the 1 to be blamed. It is me who stopped writing.

What made me to open up this story? Hmmm....I was practically wasting my time last night, trying to clear off my bedroom and sorting out all the junks when I came across bundles and bundles of letters from all my various penpals and believe it o not, I re-read the whole letters (from 7 different people around the world!). And honestly, I still couldn't find the answer m looking for - what made me stopped writing to them?? Maybe I was buzy with my life? I don't know actually!

Of all these penpals, I was close with 2 people - Nor from Malaysia and Dona from Lebanon. Both of them had their own special place in my life. And sometimes you wonder how come you can be so close with someone you never meet in your whole life and how life changed so quickly. 1 moment, you are so close with them and the next, you don't know what had been happening in their life. I managed to get in touch with Nor again. Syukur Alhamdulilah. For the past 7 years we didn't keep in touch, a lot of things had happened to her. She graduated from the uni and now a lawyer, got married, divorced and had a child. And somehow, I feel so sad for not being there for her. We used to be close and now, we were like strangers, trying to get to know each other again!

As for Dona, m still trying to find her! InsyaAllah! With Dona, she is not my penpal. I knew her from one of the groups in Yahoo!. And to know someone from Beirut is something that I never think of before. We were different in so many ways - religions, background, age but we were connected thru 1 main interest (better leave the interest unspoken..hehe!). And despite all those, we were close.....

Aaaahhh...m just missing the old days, I guess. Simple gestures can bring out some many hidden memories...