Words are a pretty powerful part of my life, obviously, I’m a writer. But I’ve come to find that the written word is fundamental to any good friendship, and in my life, words have brought me closer to people than I ever thought possible.

I met Caitlin in college, and although we were friends during our time in school, she was younger, and we didn’t have a lot of classes together, and it wasn’t until after I graduated that we really started talking (writing) and realized how close we were going to become.

I’ve known her for probably around 10 years, and we’ve only lived in the same City or State as one another, for a couple of those years. Yet, our friendship remained and remains very strong, all thanks to the ever powerful word. We email at least once a month filling the other one in on our lives, but we also take time to share blogs we love, or quotes that inspire us, or even just send a one sentence email for motivation or encouragement. Words are all we have, since we can’t see each other physically, and I feel that she knows me, and I know her, on a deeper level than many others with which I don’t share this great “word affair.”

I pour over her paragraphs, making sure to answer each question and respond to each special event happening in her life. When you’re writing, you can take the time to appreciate the story, hear the “voice” in pure form, and respond with more thoughtful and relevant advice or appreciation than you can in everyday conversations.

Like getting a surprise in the mail, Caitlin’s emails light up my day. From her catchy subject lines to her xoxo sign offs, and everything in between…
“Thank you for being a fellow word nerd, C!”

Then there’s Rae, my pen pal, yes pen pal, for the past 18 years. We have NEVER met. No, never. We talked on the phone once when we were in high school, we’ve never Skyped, nothing… All we have had all these years are our words.

We were matched up from a form in the back of a Tiger Beat Magazine when we were 12 and all of our lives we have written letters, which then transitioned into emails, and social media. People think it’s crazy that we’ve remained in touch that long, with no real basis for doing so. I mean even we think it’s a little crazy. I have people who I was best friends with in high school, that I spent a lot of time with, worked with, had fun with, cried with, etc. that I somehow lost touch with, yet with Rae, we’ve always been there for each other.

The funny thing is, that she lives in New England, so it’s not even that far away, but all the times we’ve tried to make a plan to meet, it just hasn’t worked out. But it doesn’t matter. If we’ve made it 18 years on words alone, we must be doing something right.
Someday, Rae, someday!

I’ve always been better putting things into words than saying them out loud. I can show my true colors and emotion in a card, a text, an email, much better than I can in real life. Does anyone else feel this way?

All I know, is that 26 letters can really make an impact. That’s all we have to work with, 26 letters. Arranged everyday to create words that forever change us. I love words, I love finding ways to make them my own, I love reading them from others, and I love what they can do to people’s lives.

Use the power of words today, send someone a letter, a text, an email. Open up, share, ask, offer to listen… They might just need it.

I love you. I miss you. I’m sorry. I’m happy you’re happy. I believe in you. 

Those are a few ideas. I trust you’ll find the right ones. 🙂