Two weeks ago, I submitted my application to a residential fellowship. I applied to this fellowship last year and was disheartened when I wasn’t accepted. While putting my materials together for this year’s applications, I found two glaring and embarrassing mistakes I made last year that somehow slipped underneath my play-it-cool radar.
First, my writing sample was poorly chosen. Instead of selecting one of my polished short stories that I had revised and revisited several times over, I chose the opening pages of my thesis-in-progress. The material was so raw that I finished writing the final pages of the sample the day I submitted my application. Even my thesis advisor rejected the pages for my thesis, so I should have known the rejection letter was in the mail months before it arrived.
Second, I crafted my self-biography poorly. The application requested a short self-biography, but what they got instead was a blubbering essay about how much this fellowship meant to me and how badly I needed it while cramming in as many accomplishments onto the .5” margin page.
Was I really that desperate?
Learning from these mistakes was the easy part of my application this year. After all the printing and paperclipping and proofreading, the last thing I had to do before sending it out was to slip a SAS postcard in the package.
This became my quest of the day.
When I lived in Chicago, postcards were sold at every corner drugstore (and in Chicago, drugstores were coincidentally at street corners). Postcards were sold at boutiques and bookstores and next to the gum and candy at grocery stores–conveniently located for every tourist and application and scrapbooking need.
But in suburbia, where I’m temporarily stationed, postcards are a lost art…and medium.
I first went to the town drugstore, naively estimating my errand to be quick. After circling the store twice, I got a confused look from the clerk when I asked for the postcard aisle.
“Why would someone here need a postcard?” was his response.
So I was back on the road. I drove to the town post office, for why wouldn’t the only postal service not carry this mailable form? I could buy decorative boxes and stamps with dead or alive faces and teddy bears with stamp-painted feet and envelopes of every imaginable size–but I couldn’t buy a postcard.
“Why would we carry postcards?” the clerk asked me back.
Why was it so hard to find something as simple as a postcard?
Perhaps because we don’t live in simple times anymore. We live in an age of urgent communication where we want what we write to be read now and responded to now. So we send out emails and post blogs and design websites and fax applications and read news electronically. When we do use snail mail, we shield our letters with sealable envelopes to conceal our private words (like for rejection letters). And for those postcard-length announcements, we have Twitter and Facebook to satisfy our town crier needs.
So is social media the new postcard?
The postcard isn’t dead yet. I still receive postcards from the dentist, reminding me to schedule an appointment. I still receive postcards from political campaigns, urging for my vote. And I still receive postcards from my Uncle David when he’s adventuring around the world in other big cities.
Why is it still around when we have other communication options? What purpose does the postcard still serve?
A postcard, simply, is a printed card with space for a message, an address, a postage stamp, and often a photographic or illustrated image–all without needing an envelope. Whatever the writer writes on this postcard can be–and could be–read by anyone while the postcard makes its transition from sender to sendee.
There is no privacy on the postcard.
But maybe that’s the intent of the postcard. The postcard is communication of exposure. When a company sends out postcards, it is visual marketing. When a campaign sends out postcards, it shows dedication towards a cause or politician. And when a tourist sends out a postcard, it promotes tourism to the glamoured location strategically photographed on the back.
I finally found a purchasable postcard, hidden at a small newsstand at a touristy mall. The store clerk wasn’t impressed with my feat.
As I stood in line at another post office (which also didn’t sell postcards), I kept imagining the illustrated image of the Michigan mitten on the postcard now strapped away behind layers of tape inside the package in my arms. Maybe this is why the postcard has survived. The postcard is tangible, a quick message that can be held in my hands. This makes it real. I still take the time out of my day of busy communication to read a handful of words, words that can be read over and over and over again.
And I can’t wait to read the words that come back from that postcard.
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For anyone who is confused, postcards are little rectangular cards without an envelope with a logo or any sort of illustration on the side used to send a message to someone. Yes, we all have seen that a lot of times inside the mailboxes in cartoons like Tom and Jerry from the 90s.
The earliest practice of writing postcards seems to have started somewhere dating back to the 1800s! In those golden times when all the writing and artistic illustrations were not printed but done manually by the sender himself. Imagine the amount of dedication and emotions those self-made postcards would hold.
I keep all of my letters, postcards, and thank you notes. I’ll keep them forever!
– Jane Levy
In this new era of developing technology, emails and instant text messages have taken over all means of communication and expression. In spite of being easy to use and quick in delivery and response, they lack the emotional value and thoughtfulness that postcards contain. Here are a few reasons we must keep the practice of postcard writing alive.
We all have a lot of things on our minds that we want to say but don’t find the right time or an appropriate way to. It may be a huge thank you for something little but significant someone did for you, it may be an apology that has been heavy in your heart for quite some time, or a simple message to let someone know something.
Postcards are a unique and very convincing medium to do so. An average email or a huge text message will not do the trick that a thoughtful postcard can do.
In the olden days, postcard writing used to be the fastest and the most frequently used medium to send someone a message. Not only did it have an emotional touch but it was also fun to write. In today’s date when everything is mindlessly typed in an email or text, postcard writing is a distinct and classic practice that will not only make you seem different from the rest but also
impress any receiver regardless of who they are.
We all know how much thought, energy, or effort is put into those text messages filled with abbreviations. Emails on the other hand are usually preferred for formal use and are written within three to four lines, with the replies being the same way.
Writing a postcard requires more time and thought. It makes the receiver feel important and gives the impression that you hold them at a certain place and you care about them.
A postcard is something that any receiver would want to keep safe. It was a custom or normal practice for people to store all the postcards they had received during their lifetime so that they can look back and remember. This is because of the emotional value that postcards showcase.
Modern-day text messages and emails get lost along the way as the conversation continues or the inbox gets filled up. They are not something that one can preserve and cherish.
The fast working life today demands a lot from us, making life quite hectic. With a hectic schedule comes a lot of stress. Writing a postcard can help you dampen all the stress that has been weighing you down.
Does not matter if you’re not much of an artist or writer, the half an hour you put into digging into your creative side will divert your mind from the never-ending list of worries and helps you zone out and focus on this one little task. The more time you are able to take out, the more postcards you can write. The more postcards you write, the more smiles you can spread!
Might sound very cinematic but the idea was stolen by someone for sure. If you are someone who likes to travel and explore places, one favor you can do yourself is send yourself a postcard from every country or city you have visited. Since postcards can be in the form of a picture postcard and so on, you have your own way of sending yourself a souvenir that you can cherish for the rest of your life.
Postcards are usually unexpected. The amount of joy that a receiver gets on receiving one is immeasurable. Postcards are often given as gifts, and what makes them different from other gifts is that they are the gifts that keep giving.
They bring on a smile when we look at them first while reading the message on it and even years later when we look back at them. The feeling of happiness that they bring remains the same. For such a beautiful practice to exist, we must keep it alive by writing postcards whenever we can!
Another plus point about postcards is that they can be personalized. If you know the receiver well, you can choose an appropriate color and pattern for their taste. This little practice of telling someone what you want to and bringing a smile to their face screams out many reasons why it should be kept alive!