As more days pass by with students being shut inside their homes with only the company of their families, some students have developed new hobbies. Several Bonita Vista High (BVH) students have found another way to communicate with friends aside from technology, traveling back in time and writing letters to one another. 

“My friends and I have sent [letters] to each other back and forth [since we can’t] spend time with each other over the weekends like we used to do,” senior Reyna Salcido said. “We send letters talking about what we’ve done and how we’re doing, to check up on each other. [Although] we text every now and then or FaceTime.”

Writing letters feels more personal to senior Emily Atkinson than FaceTiming or texting a friend everyday to stay in touch. Letters as well to her can bring two friends closer together.

“I feel like if you’re writing a letter, it’s easier to connect to what you feel. And text messages [are] an everyday type of thing. So, letters are different, it’s old fashioned. That’s why I feel like it’s more personal,” Atkinson said. 

To Atkinson and senior Mikayla Booth, writing letters can be more than just another way of communicating with friends. Atkinson adds that she enjoys decorating her letters to fit the personality of who she is sending it to.

“[The letters are] fun to work on and you can work on your penmanship and make them look pretty so your friends can see and send each other [letters] like that [too],” Atkinson said. 

Receiving letters is “exciting” and “makes you feel special,” Atkinson mentioned, due to the extra work that can be put into a letter rather than a text message. She refers to a letter as a “personalized note”.

“Since we’re making a bigger effort to send letters and stay in touch, it’s a nice feeling to open a letter meant for you. You keep those letters forever and they won’t change but you read it every time with [the same] meaning [they had] the first time,” Salcido said. 

Taking the time to write letters for friends meant more to Booth than just updating her friends on her life and feelings, she felt it was a way to further communicate and connect with them emotionally. 

“When I write letters to friends, it allows me to understand that these are the people in my life that I care about who reciprocate those feelings. I want to do something special for them, bring a smile to their face during these difficult times and if I can do that with a special letter then I’m going to do just that,” Booth said. 

Booth states even if California was not in a lockdown she would still be writing letters because a lot of her friends are leaving for college, though Atkinson believes the opposite.

“If we weren’t in the lockdown, I probably wouldn’t have started writing letters because I see everybody every day. Now that we’re not together all the time, writing letters, it’s just more fun. It keeps you busy,” Atkinson said. 

Salcido recommends that everyone writes letters because it can be an educational experience in addition to bonding with friends. While they are not meeting up on weekends now, according to Salcido, they have each other’s letters.

“I definitely recommend [writing letters] because it’s different. It educates people on a different level of connecting than some know how to do. Some people don’t know how to mail a letter. It’s an educational experience learning about the U.S. mail service,” Salcido said. 

For Atkinson, her letters mostly consist of plans she is making with her friends for when the lockdown is over. Writing letters for Atkinson is a way to mentally be there for her friends.

“Writing letters is so much more special than sending a text or FaceTiming someone. It truly shows that you care about that person to pour your feelings into a letter to send to them. It brings back the communication and creativity that we may be lacking during these times,” Booth said.