Postcard. Why bother?

A friend of mine who often travel with me always asking the same questions “Why do you bother sending all of those postcards?”. He’s always questioning my motive, although he always voluntarily accompany me in a quest to find a nice postcard and stamp, to accompany me in a coffeeshop writing it one by one (sometimes he even helped me writing the address), and to remind me to ask the receptionist to post it for me. He’s right tho, so many efforts, yet why bother?

I always spend time to look for postcards. I have list of friends whom I’ll be sending it to. I even chose the postcards carefully, which one to which friend. Why? because each postcard will have a story. A story that I know I can only share it to these particular friends of mine. It is a personal message for their eyes only. Thus, the picture in the postcard will be aligned with this mission. When we were still dating, I sent a postcard to Abang, telling something that I didn’t tell him when we’re texting or calling. It’s always started and ended with a native language on how to start and end a conversation. Now that we’re married, Abang and I send each of us postcards that we’ll only read it when it’s arrived already.

Mostly, I tell about the my unique findings in that particular trip. If I found something that reminds me about my friends, I’m telling them that. When I eat the favorite food of my friends. Or when I went to same places that we went before. Or about a cute guy I met during the trip, whom I know we’d be talk about. Sometimes I write funny things. Once, I wrote a price list of every foods Abang and I ate during the trip. When we read it again once it’s arrived, we’re shock. Not on how much we spent, but on how much we ate!

I’m not really sure why I bother to do so much effort and make each of the postcards very personal. I guess it’s just my way to show how I care my loved ones so much. I want to share, not in a formality, but in a way we’re talking to each other directly. Or it’s also a way for me to reminiscing every trip I’ve made. A fun reminder to make life counts and be grateful.