Challenge within a challenge: Penpal from the past

As I said yesterday my challenge where I contacted 30 Facebook friends was a great success. One of the people I contacted was an old penpal and that’s what I’m going to write about today.

When I was growing up I loved receiving post and I still do. For a while I had quite a few penpals; I was penpals with Elizabeth who I went to school with but then moved away to Iceland. I also joined a penpal club through the Royal Mail I think it was called Hola. Here I got two penpals, the first was Florian from Germany. For some reason I thought Florian was a girl’s name, so imagine my surprise when I got a picture sent through and it turned out to be a boy!

I had another penpal from India and her name was Atreyee. When Facebook first came out I guess most people added people from their past as much as their present; old school friends mainly. I searched for Atreyee on the off chance she was on Facebook and she was.

I sent her a message when I was first on Facebook asking if she was the person I was penpals with growing up and she was. We sent each other a couple of messages to say where we were at in our lives and then got on with life.

With the challenge I thought it would be nice to check in and see how she was doing, as it had been 7 years since I sent that first message. I got a reply within a day and she sent me the nicest message. She’s now a mum of two and is on sabbatical from being a lawyer.

Being a letters fan, I always keep letters I receive as I feel letters quite often require more thought than emails. I looked back in a folder which I kept old school reports and certificates and found my penpal letters. I read through Atreyee’s she had a lovely way of writing; always kind and positive and telling me to make the most of life. I guess with these challenges I take on and things I want to try I feel I’m doing this. I don’t think I had an outlook on life like that when I was 13 or 14 which is when we were penpals, so she was wise before her years!

With her Facebook message she hasn't changed. She said how my Facebook posts are awesome and make her feel like there is so much more to life than her life as a lawyer. She said she’s trying to learn to cook, so I might send a few recipes her way.

She said that if I ever was to go to India I must make a stop at Delhi and catch up with her. I'm hoping one day I’ll take a trip and be able to meet Atreyee.