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I have a maroon-colored shoebox in my room where I store my most precious letters. Most of these were sent to me in Japan, where I lived when I was younger.

Back then, there was simply no other way to keep in touch with my friends. Long-distance phone calls were far too expensive and e-mail had yet to be made accessible to the general public.

I’d sometimes receive up to 10 letters a week. It took a lot of time and effort for me to answer them one by one, which I did either on the weekend or during a boring class in school.

I could — and still can — spend hours in stationery shops, picking out lovely writing paper and matching envelopes, as well as a variety of pens and pencils in every possible shade and color.

Some of the letters I received were quite short, with the writers just wanting to let me know that they were still thinking of me even though I was living on the other side of the world. Other envelopes contained several pages, with my friends detailing their latest crushes, the problems they were having in school or complaining about parents who did not understand them — the usual things every normal teenager has to deal with.

The paper has turned yellow and the ink faded on some of my letters. But I still treasure these missives, and from time to time I open the shoebox and start reading. It’s like being transported back to another time, not unlike leafing through old diaries.

In today’s fast-paced world, it seems that people can no longer be bothered to write letters, which makes me feel like I am one of the last survivors of a long-lost era. Even my parents have learned how to use the Internet and prefer this faster, easier electronic method. Communication via SMS or e-mail, or online networks such as Facebook and Twitter, has become the norm in keeping everyone connected.

This is the second time that I have lived far away from my friends in Germany, but thanks to the Internet, I don’t have to wait for weeks before receiving updates from them. But while electronic messages are certainly convenient, I still mourn the dying art of writing letters.

For me, receiving a handwritten letter is like getting a Christmas present. It shows me that someone cares about me and took time out of their busy lives to sit down and put pen to paper.

Even the most heartfelt message lacks a personal touch and, to me at least, is less enjoyable when the recipient has to read it on a computer screen.

It doesn’t take much effort to send an e-mail. If you don’t like what you’ve written, you can just hit the “delete” button and start all over. A handwritten letter, however, is not that easily thrown into the trash bin.

We have learned about some of the greatest men and women in history through the letters they left behind. What they put down on paper gives us insight into their personal lives, and in some cases their letters have become literary jewels.

What if US President Abraham Lincoln or French philosopher Voltaire would have sent e-mails instead of letters? Surely, these would have vanished by now, lost somewhere in the “deleted items” folder of someone’s Gmail account. We would never have known about Voltaire’s views on 18th century England during his nearly three-year exile there.

If not for the many letters that Lincoln wrote to people of different backgrounds and ages — even during the busy years of the Civil War — he wouldn’t be one of the best-documented of the 19th century American presidents.

Today, we have the pleasure of reading letters that painter Vincent van Gogh sent to his brother, Theo, the written testimonies of the six wives of King Henry VIII and the correspondence between author Jane Austen and her sister, Cassandra.

Not only do we get a glimpse into what was going on in these people’s lives, we also get the chance to read about the most beautiful declarations of love that have ever been immortalized in written form.

“I awake all filled with you,” French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to Josephine Beauharnais in 1795, one year before their marriage.

“Your image and the intoxicating pleasures of last night allow my senses no rest. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how strangely you work upon my heart … in three hours I shall see you again. Til then, a thousand kisses, mio dolce amor ! but give me none back for they set my blood on fire.”

The French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir wrote to her lifelong companion, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, in 1930: “My love, I never felt our love more strongly than that evening at Les Vikings, where you gazed at me so tenderly I felt like weeping,”

“If I weren’t so uncomfortably positioned for writing, I’d spend pages telling you how happy I am and how much I love you. But I take comfort from the fact that you felt it clearly yourself, didn’t you, little man? Here are a hundred kisses, each carrying the same message.”

How will future generations remember a time when letters were written? With the dramatic decline in letter writing — and writing things by hand, in general — what will historians refer to in the future? Files and folders of printed out e-mails? Or an external hard drive containing contracts, love notes and season’s greetings?

A couple of days ago, I randomly picked out a letter from my shoebox.

“Dear Katrin,” it read. “We all miss you very much. The seat in our class where you used to sit remains empty, and it feels strange to think that you live in another country now. Hopefully, you can come back for a visit soon. It is not the same without you here.”

Overcome by sentimentality, I grabbed pen and paper and started writing a letter to my friend.

Dear E-Pal, You’ve Got Mail

Back in the day, it was not uncommon to have pen pals — people whom you had never met, but who you became friends with through exchanging letters.

Most of my pen pals lived in foreign countries. When I was teen, I had pen pals from England, Italy, Portugal and Brazil.

With the onset of the digital age, the novelty of pen pals has faded away. Now, there are faster ways to meet people in the cyber world. Pen pals have been replaced by so-called e-pals. Instead of letters, e-pals send each other e-mails on a regular basis.
The Web site www.interpals.net, one of the many online pen pal sites, was created over a decade ago.

People who are interested can sign up for free and look for new friends all over the world for purposes of online correspondence, cultural exchange or learning foreign languages. They can also opt to exchange snail mail, but most of the site’s members prefer to exchange messages electronically.

Tri Wahyudi Joko Sulistya, 32, from Yogyakarta said he had found four friends via Interpal that he actively communicates with. They mostly message about their culture and shared interests, like the latest movies.

Sometimes, however, the exchange becomes more than just small talk over the Internet.

“One of them is from the Netherlands and he needed help to find the grave of his great-grandparents’ in Yogyakarta,” Joko said. With Joko’s help, his e-pal was able to locate the cemetery.

“I prefer to exchange e-mails instead of letters because it doesn’t cost as much,” he said, adding that it was an easy way to make friends all over the world. While not sure if he would be able to meet any of his e-pals in person, Joko said he didn’t mind as long as they had something interesting to talk about in their electronic correspondence.

Edwin Santoso, 17, from Surabaya is a senior high school student. He signed up for Interpals because he was looking for new friends in other countries. He exchanges daily e-mails with about 30 people.

“Most of them come from Europe,” Edwin said.

“I think it’s interesting to learn about other countries and what kind of lifestyle they have. We talk about our hobbies, movies, school, almost everything.”

Like Joko, Edwin thinks that writing letters is too time-consuming and less efficient than sending electronic post.
“E-mails don’t need envelopes and stamps,” he said.