Where to Start...

I started pen paling because I loved getting mail and I started at 13.

I started swapping because I heard of this website on YouTube. I did not start using it a lot until recently though!

I started penpalling off and on with Servicemen in my early 20's. Then into friendships with females. I started swapping mostly when I found Swap-bot in 2017.

I started pen paling because I wanted to learn new things about different towns and wanted to also get a post-card from different states cities counties bec I wanted to see the difference how long it takes to get mail. plus I also wanted to make new friends as well. I started swapping because I saw how fun my sister was having and wanted to learn new things and wanted to show off my crafting side.

At first, I was scared of the thought of having to write down the return address for mail as well as the thought of writing to complete strangers. But after journaling for a couple of months, I wanted to venture out to try new things when it came to writing. So I would have to say that because of journaling, I also started pen paling in order to befriend people who have same interests as mine, which is crafting, hand-written letters, and journaling. I also enjoy giving out extra gifts with my letters now and then. It enlightens my heart.

I got my start in junior high school when the librarian ask for volunteers to help Chinese people practice their English! It was so fun to write back and forth with others, of all ages. Some of them would send small gifts and currency to us and it peaked my interest in coins more. My postage stamp collection was something I picked up from my Grandpa though. He was in the USN and sent us postcards from all his travels!

My grandmother and I wrote back and forth when I was young. She lived in Ohio and I lived in Texas. I visited her every summer and when she'd set down to do her correspondence, I'd write my cousin in Texas.

Hey Friends, I started pen palling when I was a kid. Back in the day, we didn't have a phone (or t.v.) so doing old-timey things like reading, writing, doing arts and crafts and writing letters was en vogue. I needed to communicate with family to tell them what I wanted for birthdays and Christmas somehow, so writing a letter was my only option. I wrote to friends that I met at the county fair and livestock shows I went to throughout the year. My first love was in the military and we wrote letters all through his training and everywhere he was stationed for a lot of years. Swapping is simple, I saw it on Instagram and decided that I needed it in my life. I just love doing both, writing letters and sending happy mail.

I started pen palling when I was really young (by the age of 12 but am pretty sure it was even before that even.) I'd write to my aunt's sister who I met at her house and I can remember writing really, really long letters (like 10 to 15 pages!) I think back on it now and think - oh, that poor lady who had to read all the ramblings of a pre-teen. Ha! Ha!

Then I met some sort of relative at a family reunion and she lived in Oregon (I'm in Pennsylvania) and I wrote to her as well.

This is not to say of all of the writing I did to my best friend and though there were short notes here and there, there were also long letters with many pages as well.

And last but not least was that I found a pen pal from a church bulletin when I was a teenager and wrote to a guy name Ali who was from another country. Well, honestly that wasn't all because I went on to find pen pals after I had left home and I met my friend, Dee through the mail and we because long letter pen pals and wrote to each other for close to 30 years before she died.

After that time, I found swap-bot and have loved doing swaps here!

I started pen paling because it makes me happy to find something in my mailbox.

I started penpalling because earlier last year, It was a gloomy day for me, and I remember scrolling on the section of "Mail art" on instagram. I was absolutely fascinated by the idea people would get together and send eachother letters. I was like omg! I wanna do that too!!! So alas, I tried finding people who penpalled on instagram (but didnt go well) until after a whole month of trying to find ACTUAL snail-mailers. For short, I LOVE receiving mail!!

I started penpaling regularly last year and I love it. I found a penpal group on reddit and got started and it's been so addictive. I never got fun mail before I started penpaling. I have fun collecting little goodies to send out, finding creative things that can be mailed to make another person smile makes me feel good and I love getting mail in return as well. I also really enjoy card making and this gives me an opportunity to send them out. 😁

I started penpalling/swapping last year. I was battling depression and had a hard time making and maintaining friendships that required me being there physically. So I started writing letters to some people and soon I started to notice that receiving and sending mail made me really happy. Here I am today, I won against depression but the love for snailmailing remained!

I started swapping in 2010 because some friends of mine kept raving about it. I signed up, loved it & was doing great until my life threw me a series of curve balls & I flaked a bit ( the shame ). Well 10 years later I find I really miss swapping & the creative outlet it gave me, so I’m back. My rating reflects the awful place I was for awhile 10 years ago. I’m in a much better place now, and am hoping I can move past those earlier mid-steps. I so appreciate this opportunity for a small ratings boost to try to repair my reputation & start again.
Peace all.

I have always loved stationary ever since I was a little kid. I used to use pretty floral stationary to write to my grandparents and I still write to my grandmother. Around 5 years ago I met a woman online that was my age and that I seemed to have a lot in common with. I’m not really sure where I got the idea but I asked if she’d like to be pen pals and we ended up writing for 2-3 years before she stopped responding. Since then I’ve found new pals and I like the ones I currently have. I got into swapping in 2015 when I found a swapping group on Facebook. It was fun and through the group I found out about swap bot and created an account. At first I thought this website was very confusing and didn’t understand how to use it so I sort of forgot about it for a while. When my chronic illness caused me to be very sick for a week and I was unable to participate in the Facebook group they kicked me out without explanation and ignored my messages. I remembered swap bot so I started swapping on here near the end of 2018.

I was feeling like snail mail was becoming a dying art years ago and craved to see letters in my mailbox again. Somehow while Google searching for snail mail or letters to soldiers, something of that nature, I ran into swap bot! It's lead me to an entire world of crafting I didn't even know about. I was always artistic but it was limited mostly to painting, now I work in all different kinds of mediums! I've kept doing it because it brings me so much joy to make fun mail and send it out! I love making it more than receiving it, I put goodie bags together every holiday and it's a blast. I'm so glad I found the site, I have amazing penpals now because of it and so many friends far and near!

I started 10 years ago with postcrossing Why I started don't know exactly anymore, but the fact that I would send and receive cards from all over the world sounded like a way to meet people and learn about there lives. Slowly it became more than PC, I joined more swaps. On the site of Postcrossing there was an add for swapbot and curious as I'am I joined. The last few years I was sometimes more active and sometimes there was no time or place in my life for swapping. But the love for receiving mail is strong and therefor I can't stop swapping or sending cards true Postcrossing. Lots of people and friends like this hobby and even the mailman once comment on how many package I received. I think it most be fun for them as well to see so many happy envelops in stead of boring ones.

I started pen-palling when I was really, really young with friends from other countries. I always loved getting snail mail - it's like a surprise present in the post box!

I fell off the pen-pal wagon when I went to National Service and then went to university. Life got hectic and I didn't have the time or energy to keep it up, and my pen-pals were all in a similar boat.

Last year, I wanted to get back to snail mail again, and that's when I found Postcrossing! I was immediately so intrigued as I collected postcards when I was a kid. After a while of being on there, I read a recommendation for Swap-Bot on one of the forums and came here. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Hello from Southern Upstate NY... I started Pen Palling way back when i was in Jr.High..MANY years ago! HA HA ! They had a club in school and i joined it.I have since continued palling.I love meeting new people and making new friends.I have met some of my pals at different times in my life.Always a fun time doing that..Back in the day, There used to be pen palling magazines. Those were fun and i met a girl with the same name as mine(first and last) That was fun and we are still friends..I feel letter writing is a lost art these days so i do my best to keep it alive and thriving.

Hello there. Five years ago I participated in a school project - we were exchanging letters with students from Finland. Luckily my Finnish friend was into snail mailing and scrapbooking so she explained to me what is that all about! While my classmates have ended the project, I continued exchanging letters with her :) I started searching for other pen pals on different websites. During the last summer I decided to join swap-bot! I've heard about it from a YouTuber and I decided to give it a try. I really like it! 😊

I started pen palling in the 5th grade. Our class wrote to a class in South Korea (each of us had our own student to write to) The letters were all mailed together in one box and the school paid to mail them.

I continued to write to the girl I had on my own until I graduated. She didn't approve of me getting married out of high school so she told me she couldn't write to me anymore.

Hello from the UK! I’ve always loved sending and receiving letters, but none of my friends or family ever really enjoyed it. Penpalling is the perfect way to make connections with people you’d never meet otherwise, as well as being able to send and receive stories from across the world in such a great format :)

I came to Swap-bot via letterboxing. My best friend got me involved in letterboxing and I met Cariah Creates there. She introduced me to Swap-bot ten years ago (has it been that long?!). I really enjoy being able to exchange and learn about new crafts. My letterboxing background has been useful as well.

I’m not very interested in penpalling. I’ve tried a couple times but it has never amounted to much.

I started pen palling when I was about 10 or 11. We had a class project which involved us writing to an assigned kid at another school and then eventually meeting up with them. After receiving my first letter I was absolutely hooked and continued to write to the girl for the rest of the year. Internet was in it's early days so I use to read all the teen magazines to see if I could find anything pen pal related and i've been pen palling ever since :)

I Started Pen paling in elementary school, i carried on into adult hood because i grew up as a "loaner" in school

I began swapping because i found this site a few years ago while looking for new pen pals after loosing contact with my pen pals, I fell short of swapping dew to medical issues, and i am freshly back now trying to raise my ratings, have fun, and make new friends

The idea of sending people letters started when I was in school when I would send a letter to one of my good friends and since then after I graduated I wanted to keep up practice of pen palling.

I started pen paling for 2 reasons. I needed to write better I also collected stamps when I was younger so it did both without having to practice writing on a tablet.

When I moved and Started making ATC’s and didn’t want to collect my own. I had been swapping cards in another site one of them told me about swap bot.

I started penpalling when I got into fountain pens I wanted to use my pens more and journaling was not cutting it. So I found penpals on the fountain pen site After about a decade I needed to find some new penpals and I found postcrossing.

A friend there suggested swapbot so here I am

I started penpalling back in like....98 or 99 I think? I was around 9 or 10 from some random pen pal website that I stumbled upon in the days of crappy geocity websites. My first penpal that I had was from Sri Lanka, I think I still have some of the letters in a box somewhere! I thought it was such a cool idea to write letters to someone from some place that I knew nothing about!

I started out with quilt square swaps on Facebook and they were talking about Swapbot in one of my groups. I came over to sign up and do block swaps here. Then I saw postcard swaps. My mother and I used to collect postcards when I was a kid. I lost them in a fire when our house burned after she had passed away. Great way to rebuild my collection. One thing led to another and I was doing all kinds of swaps.

I had been on a pen-pal group on Facebook but I got overwhelmed and didn't follow through (I got assigned like ten pen-pals) so I have avoided pen-pal swaps until this month. I have two ladies that I have received letters from that I would like to write to on a regular basis. I won't allow myself to get too many so I can do right by the ones I have. Thanks.

Sending big hugs from Texas, Diane

My journey of penpalling began just 5 months ago, I longed for a more genuine human interaction instead of just 'how are you' or 'ok'. Something in me longed for a real connection with someone and so I started penpalling!

I've always loved art and craft and dream of one day acquiring a arty penpal to swap sketches or small paintings with!

I had a pen pal when I was younger from Australia. I though that was neat to get mail from another country. I have always made art and crafts as well. Once I found swapbot a few years ago, it is the perfect way to incorporate my love for crafting. Not to mention working with others who feel the same.

I always loved snail mail. My father would send me postcards from all over the world, he was in the military. My grandparents sent care packages. I like sending things to my friends who I no longer live by.

I started penpaling in high school, in my foreign language class. We wrote each other for 12 years. Then she just stopped replying. So I sought out ways to continue and found Post Crossing. Someone mentioned Swap Bot on their profile and I have been here ever since.

I started pen-paling this month and it all started with bullet journaling and keeping a creative/junk journal. I would browse videos on Youtube of 'journal with me' and came across snail mail / pen pals. After watching a series of videos of people opening their mail, I thought it would be a great thing to try.

I love the creative element and have recently sent out my first few letters. Initially, I was very nervous about sharing elements of my life with a stranger but the idea but the thrill of receiving a letter was enough to overcome that. I have not yet done a swap and am still nervous about it, but also very excited to try it out!

I started pen-palling in high school Japanese class where we had to write letters to our sister school in Japan. Since then I've had a few penpals and only just found this site. I'm super excited to get swapping and write to people around the world.

I started sending pen pal letters after I came across a pen pal subreddit post that piqued my interest. I never had a pen pal as a child, but I've always loved writing long letters, so I gave it a shot. I've made a handful of good friends and it's been a true blessing to my life to form lasting connections with wonderful like-minded women around the globe.

After a little time, I realized how creative I enjoyed being with my flat mail & found a community on YouTube that felt the same. I kept hearing about "swaps" and had no idea what it was. Google led me to swap-bot. It's been so much fun!

Sorry I have been In and Out of Er and Had EMergency Surgery. I was lonely when I first Married my husband in a different state. so I went to YouTube and someone was having a Christmas thing where you put your wishes...And someone friended me and It started from there. and I heard of swapbots. That was 2 years ago. I also did some swapping on Facebook!! I knew NOTHING about this world until then....I just kept sending my CRAPPY (at the Time) Projects To family and friends who didnt want them. HAHA Didnt understand staying home crafting.

I started looking at Bujovideos and stationary hauls on youtube and then I found a lovely new obsession - snailmai! So I am going to make 2020 - the snailmail year!

I started a insta dedicated to bujo and snailmail becouse I got so inspired. Hoping to find a penpal soon. :)

Instanick - Paperandflowers

I started pen paling/swap since i was 14 years, because I loved it, at the first i start sending only letters and notes, and when i discovered swap-bot i was really happy, because here i can send all kind of things. I love handcrafts , so i really enjoy sending things i can made by myself, and receiving things that other person like me enjoy too.

I started penpaling/snailmail 5 years ago because I love hoarding stationery and letter sets. I realized I have too much and I need to get rid of some of it. I discover snailmail at Tumblr and I had penpals back then. I stopped penpaling for 2 years because I went to university and I dont have time. I got back at it 2 years ago and I found my penpals thru Instagram. Right now I have more than 20 penpals and I dont plan on stopping writing to them. I'm not really creative but I love giving goodies to my penpals. I am more excited writing the letter than receiving one. I enjoy both!

I started swapbot since last Nov2019. I was looking for more means of sending stationery and postcards.

I started postcrossing/postcard swap 2 years ago.