reaching out to strangers, seeing who reaches back
After a month and change straight of pure studio work, drafting drafting draftng, cardboard, hot glue everywhere, more drafting, and final reviews, I have officially (almost, still have an essay) completed my first year of architecture!
Back in February, I decided to create posters including my blog url, instagram handle and email, asking people to contact me telling me their names, how they got to my city, and where they were going from here, just for the sake of it. I scattered them around downtown, mostly in our arts university as an attempt to signal to the people I believe would match with me the most.
I've always been fascinated with slowing down communication. I've previously written about the letter, and my history with it. I was previously a penpaller, but have put that to rest for the last couple years. I hope to start again soon.
After getting out of the previously mentioned architecture hell, I finally got around to checking my email to see who responded to my call into the downtown void. To my surprise, 4 people reached out to me, which is 4 more people than I expected to given the nature of my request! It's very hard to just send a little piece of yourself to a detached email, but I bet they felt just as exhilarated sending it as I felt receiving it.
From what it seems like, each person has qualities and a way of talking that I really find myself enjoying, so I think my hypothesis of the ones who reach out on a limb to me after I've sent myself to them are the ones that I need in my life.
I like to think that this is me bringing my penpalling history back in a new light. Letting myself get to know someone just through words, emails, with no knowledge of when I'll get the treat of hearing back. It takes away the urgency and stress of the text while also not having the hassle of having to ship a letter off. A happy medium in my busy life!