Cards

I think I should have known that I always fond of cards, birthday cards, Christmas cards, anniversary cards, bereavement cards, get-well-soon cards, baby cards, encouragement cards, thank you cards, any cards.

I like them since I was such a little girl, maybe 7 or 8 just then, moment where I changed my school and moved away to a foreign place where I knew no one and the only friend I got was just the one in my class. So they gave me cards, and I gave them mine, promised each other that we will write as often as possible, let the others know what's going on in one's life.

So I began to collect cards, and letters, and like any other young girls at that time, I started to /hunt/ pretty envelopes and letter kits. I adored those little stickers that you could put in your letter to emphasize your words, and I loved to beautify every package I sent to my friends.

I think that was when I realized my interest in art. Hahaha, at such a young age. Unfortunately, most of the collection since childhood has long gone, those naïve letters and pretty cards, but that's okay, I guess. My feeling about it /is/ the important one.

Anyway, cards nowadays were not that popular anymore. Kind of sad actually, since it holds sincere and authentic signature that we senders gave to them receivers. I missed those times when at Christmas people exchanging cards, or when someone having their birthday then cards flowing in to their mailbox. Now, it still is, only done electronically. Instead of physical cards, you received email, e-cards, short message in your phone, a shout in your blog, wall post in your Facebook, tweets in your twitter, video message in myspace account, or simply a greeting and a handshake from people standing next to you. I think those things were easily dismissed, you would forget the handshake right away, and your inbox will be full at some time then you need to clean it. But with cards, no, I collected them, hoping one day I will have children that share the similar interest with mine and then I could tell them stories, just by holding a card.

I always said birthday cards is even more important than the birthday gifts. ‘fcourse it would be weird to give someone a birthday card without a gift (and by definition, a gift is anything but cards), and ‘fcourse it’s always nice to receive a gift, but personally I constantly looked for the cards. Strange behavior for some people, but not me. I keep them in my treasure box and I still love to open it and read some of the old ones. Reading them every so often brought this smile upon my lips, knowing that at least on that day, I shared something with those people. A card.

There was even a time when I actually insisted having my friend to give me physical Christmas card last year and she ended up giving me a Chinese New Year’s card instead. Seriously, at Christmas day, with a note saying, “I know you don’t understand the letters, so this should work.”

Anyway, this week something strange occurred in my life. And it has everything to do with cards and letters. I remembered some of my childhood friends (and well, let’s face it, childhood crush, even though I only remembered their nickname) and wondered that at least one of them must have had a Facebook account. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Facebook now works as an updated people database. Maybe in some countries, if a police want to trace a bad guy, they just look for their Facebook accounts =_=

So I ended up trying to search names in the searching box, blamed my short memory since I forget their full name sometimes but yeah I stumbled upon a few.

One of them is the oldest pen-friend of mine. Ha-ha, seriously, that girl is my friend from back then when I was still in Jakarta, at third grade of elementary school, who at my last day gave me her address and promised to write each other. I even have no recollection whatsoever regarding what sort of friendship we had when we were still in school, I just remembered the time when we exchanged those cards and letters. Those scrap papers and tiny stickers. Those cute little profile letter (favorite food, favorite color, favorite drinks, ahahahahaha, so vintageeee). And I remembered the feeling I had at that moment.

But eventually, people grew up. Three years later I lost contact of her since she also moved from Jakarta to Jogja, and sooner or later I started to forget.

Till yesterday, when I saw her name and still not sure whether that was really her. I asked, hoping that I reach the right person and ‘fcourse secretly wishing that she would still remember me. And yes she does. That was sooooo bizarre. We know nothing but the letters (which had already gone anyway) but we remembered every single feeling we had during that period.

The girl is going to have her wedding in July, and she told me that she actually put my name on the invitation list with blank address, even before that rendezvous in Facebook, believe it or not. She has this kind of feeling that somehow after nearly 20 years we would meet again, and she is right. That’s just eerie, and sweet, but eerie.

Then today, I visited one of UNICEF’s gift shop, and I saw these lovely cards, which reminded my of my past hobby. The price is extensively pricey (i.e. 150.000 IDR for 10 blank cards) but I think it’s okay since they were for the greater good. I intended to buy them someday (when this economic depression of mine ends maybe) and gave to the people I love.