I’ve written many letters in my 19 years. Some I’ve sent in the mail. Some I’ve delivered by hand. Some I’ve written and held on to for safe keeping. Despite all these letters having different destinations, different hands for them to fall into, they have one thing in common: I have always ended my letters with the remark “with all my love, steff”. I’ve dabbled in trying to find a new closing statement for my letters when I started college, felt like a way to rebrand myself in a way. I tried, “til then”, “godspeed”, even tried “very respectfully”, but none of them could capture all the genuine love I had while writing the letter. No closing was ever enough to translate how much love, time, energy I happily put into writing the letter.
My letters have evolved over the years. The attention to detail of my letters has strengthened from the small sentences I used to send my mom when she was deployed in Iraq. The sophistication has improved from the days I sat in my freshman year classes writing love letters to my high school sweetheart. My letters have become more heartfelt, as I continued to write my friend, Ethan, this summer as he spent it in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri at basic training. My letters have become a token of my love as I traveled to different countries and cities and made sure to send my best friends a post card with a little message to remind them that I am thinking of them. My letters have become moments that I write in a little black book that sits in the most secretive place in my room, that remind me of where I’ve been and where I’m going.
These pieces of papers have traveled millions of miles, and none at all. They’ve served different purposes. I’ve written break up letters to the same boyfriend I wrote love letters to. They were ways for me to tell my day to day stories to friends I hadn't seen in a while. And, most importantly, they served as a chamber of secrets, that gave me the chance to write down all the thoughts in my head that my lips were too scared to speak.
I encourage you to pick up a pen and write a letter. It can be to your significant other, to your friend, or even to yourself. Allow yourself to express all the storms happening in your head, write it down, put it in an envelope, address it, and send it to its final destination. Maybe one day, you’ll find yourself opening your mailbox and inside sits a letter from an old friend or someone you love dearly, and in that moment, I hope you know, it truly was written with all of the sender’s love!
With all my love,
♡steff
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