I have an old shoe box that sits on top of my closet. I never got to touch it since the time I posted about the same old shoe box back in 2011. It has gotten too dusty and too frail to hold all the letters and other memorabilia that were in it.

Old letters from my old shoe box

My old friends knew me too well. They knew how much I love sending letters, much more, receiving and reading one. My childhood bestfriend, Faith, and I exchanged letters since grade school even though we are living in the same city and not to mention, we see each other every Sunday.

One of Faith's grabe ka-random letters.

My bestfriend and partner-in-crime in highschool, Dice, used to give me cards on random days, she pins it on our classroom bulletin board and it never fails to surprise me.

One of Dice's "wala lang" cards.

And who would forget my bespren, RJ, when he bought a filler notebook and wrote a letter to it and then scoured the whole campus for the whereabouts of our other teammates in football and asked them to write a letter for me? That was a classic move.

From Bespren RJ and in it are letters from different people in our team.

My ever reliable friend, El-el, used to send me random letters way back in college, and I love reading it even though her letters seemed to go on forever. And yes, I could go on forever. But I'm not gonna bore you how I got all those letters because I probably have almost a hundred of them.

From El-el. This has got to be the most epic and longest letter I've received my entire life.

Handwritten letters are now slowly falling into the hands of extinction. In this modern age where emailing, texting, and facebooking are convenient, who would even bother exerting an effort to write letters? I admit it, I am lazy. I can just type away instead. But just because I am lazy doesn't mean I lost the gusto to it. I still love writing letters, much more, receiving and reading one.

Yesterday, we had our Company's Christmas party. It was so much fun we all ended up having an aching tummy from too much laughing, but that deserves another post and it should not steal the limelight those handwritten letters are getting at the moment. Anyway, I received a box. I actually asked for it because I am a sentimental person and, obviously, my old shoe box needs replacement. And it doesn't get any more perfect than this:

But what surprised me the most, was the letter that came with it. I never thought I would receive letters again. This blog post should tell them how much their letters mean a lot to me. Thank you so much, Glenda and Jamie! (And of course, to Claire and Cie, Kenn, and John for the gifts I have received, but then again, that will be written in another post.)

Unexpected from Glenda and Jamie :)

I transferred my letters from the old to the new box. It was the only time I looked on to it after a long time. So I started unraveling those words written by those people close to me. Memories came flashing back in an instant that I found myself laughing and almost crying. Mostly laughing. Grabe gyud diay ko kabugoy tung-una. A warm feeling washed over me as I unfolded each letter that holds a fond and irreplaceable memory.

Then it dawned me, what has the internet and technology done? I mean, instant messaging is good. Really good. I have no qualms about it. But there's always something beautiful and thoughtful about handwritten letters. And it's a feeling I am glad I've experienced and still experiencing despite the spurt of social media and free messaging apps. Nothing can ever replace traditional and handwritten letters. Nothing beats the sincerity that comes along with it. 20 years from now where will all those emails and texts be gone? Definitely, not in my memory box.

Yay! ^_^