Penpal

I was clearing my drawers today and decided to finally dispose of all old my letters which I haven't gone through over the past few years...

I had a penpal during my primary school days.

She was actually my best friend when I was P5, but later she had to transfer school end of P5 as her family moved to Woodlands (my primary school was in Clementi area).

In order to stay in contact, we started writing to each other then. We created nicknames for each other. She was Thumbelina and I was Cinderella (well I guess Disney was still the trend those days haha). We often update each other about school, family and the challenges we faced. We'll always write our letters on scented or colourful paper, and decorate our letters with little stickers

It was 2-3 exchanges of letters in the first 2 months, then 2-3 exchanges in the next 6 months and finally 2-3 exchanges in a year. That maintained for 7 years, I was shocked to realised it only today.

After that, we met each other at NUS few years back. Was real happy to see her at first, thought we can catch up with old times and everything will be like the old days. But after a few conservations, I realised the feeling was no longer like the past when we readily shared everything together.

I suppose feelings have changed after all these years, and I still felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia when I think about the old times and read the old letters, but I suppose we all have to move on.

I suippose sometimes being too sentimental and keeping too many items from the past carries too much emotional burden. I read the letters for the last time before I dropped them into the bag.



"I am worried that if I change school, would our relationship change?"
-First Letter from Thumbelina, 13 Nov, 1997