Postcards: Introduction

I belong to a postcard swapping group called postcrossings. Basically you sign up and make a profile which includes your mailing address (mine is a PO Box). Then you ask for an address to send a postcard. Each address comes with a code. You send the postcard to the person, writing whatever you'd like. When they get it, they log on, put the code in and the system registers that you sent a postcard. Once you've successfully sent one, your name goes on the list, someone requesting an address gets yours, and voila, you've got mail.

Occasionally a card goes missing in the post or goes unregistered, but its a system that works. I've been postcrossing since 2008 and I have sent out 123 postcards in the past two years and I have received 123 postcards.

When you get someone's address you also get sent their profile. Mine reads:

"I am a 25 year old Canadian/Australian doing volunteer work with refugees from Burma in Thailand. I would love to hear from the world, from someone with imagination, with questions to ask and smiles to give.

Not that this should cramp your style, but if you can't think of something to write (and please tell me something not on your profile), you could try:

• something saucy/sexy/sassy
• a dream/memory/wish
• a poem/philosophy/pondering
• what you know about love "

People actually write all kinds of things. The most boring people write simply: "Happy Postcrossings." But now and again you get some good ones. So that's what I'm going to share. The interesting messages scribbled on backs of cardboard I get from strangers.