Not long after I received my first postcard from Rich in the United States, I was eagerly awaiting my second. Postcrossing had already begun to captivate me, and each new postcard was like a small treasure from a distant land. My second postcard came from Mirja , a woman living in a small town called Orimattila near Lahti, in southern Finland. I didn’t know much about Finland back then—just vague images of snowy landscapes and forests—but Mirja changed that. Her postcard carried a glimpse into her world, a world that I had never imagined. At the time, she was a gardener, working in a flower shop after years of farming. She had four daughters, her youngest, Jasmin , living with her and playing basketball at a competitive level. Through her message, Mirja painted a picture of family life in Finland, sharing her joys and challenges. It was her openness that truly touched me, especially when she spoke of her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the hardships she faced, including...
In 2007, the world was already beginning to tilt towards the digital. Emails were the new normal, and social media was slowly becoming a global phenomenon. Amidst this rapid shift to virtual connections, I stumbled upon something that would reconnect me to the tangible world in a deeply personal way—Postcrossing. Postcrossing wasn’t just a website; it was a revolution in its own quiet way. Founded in 2005 by Paulo Magalhães, a man who shared the same love for postcards that many of us did, the idea behind the platform was simple yet profound: to connect people around the world through the act of sending and receiving postcards. What Paulo created was a network, but not the kind with instant messages or fleeting likes. It was a network built on patience, anticipation, and the simple joy of finding a postcard waiting for you in your mailbox. For me, the magic of mail had been in my life long before I discovered Postcrossing. My d...