With the advent of new technology, many things have changed over time. The equipment our service members use is much more advanced. Our children learn in very different ways than we did. And our means of communication have drastically changed, no longer requiring handwritten letters of love.

Skype, email, and phone calls are common when our service members are gone, and they’ve replaced other more traditional correspondence. In an age where everything moves a little more quickly than it used to, sending an email seems to be more effective than writing a letter.

A project done by Destiney Vu for her husband for their six-month anniversary. It included all the letters they’d written to each other.

Lately, I’ve seen a number of my friends come across the letters they sent back and forth with their service member during times of separation, like basic training, deployment, and TDY.  It made me go find our box.

Our box has no rhyme or reason to it, but there is a full three-quart box of letters that have been shared back and forth over the eight years we have been together. The letters range anywhere from short, quick letters to letters that continue on for pages. There are even a couple pages I colored and sent to my husband.

Whenever he’s gone and I see a letter in the mail in his handwriting, it’s like a flutter in my stomach. It’s that moment of happiness. That moment that, even though he’s busy where he is, he was able to take a few minutes just for me. Being able to see his handwriting and smell him (and even some of the not-so-great-smells of where he is) brings a level of comfort.

A few of our collection of letters.

I’m guilty of using email to send a quick question or to tell him I’m thinking of him, but I always make sure that I mail letters out as well. I just hope that one day, our children or grandchildren will have these letters instead of emails to look back on to understand some of what this life was like.

For more about writing “real” letter, check out this post.