That is exactly what I tell everyone about my local post office !
Iâm not a very good PostCrossing Evangelist. My wife and son read all the cards I receive and usually comment something benign like, âthatâs interesting.â
Your mom and my husband! What if someone knocks on our door and wants to stay over
I get a lot of polite but baffled âoh okay, thats⌠interestingâ But people close to me still go out of their way to give me handfuls of blank postcards from their travels, especially my dad. Thats all the encouragement I need!
I admit I have high hopes for this⌠Now that Iâm getting known as the postcard person, maybe I will get some cool blank cards from familyâŚ
Exactly what my father tells about me to everyone these days and to postal workers
Your phone case is so cool!!!
âwaste of moneyâ is definitely something I hear a lot too
In particular from my mother who is Taiwanese, as in Taiwan sending postcards costs between 5 and 12 NTD (0.14 to 0.35 euro) depending on where you send them to, while in France it costs now 1.96 euro, and the cost increases every year (+10%)âŚ
I see there!
My relatives find it cool and they sometimes look at the cards and stamps I receive (they canât read them, coz they donât speak English though). My colleagues keep asking if Iâm heading to the post office to send something after work, and if I am, theyâre always interested in seeing what is it this time.
Generally speaking everyone is rather positive about the whole idea and one of my friends even joined postcrossing
The friends I have told love the idea. A lot goes back to 2020 when I couldnât visit Mum in a care home. We had loads of post cards that I had bought over the years but not sent. So I wrote them to her weekly and told her about the visits. It was mail to get and cheer up her lonely weeks.
No support here as well. They do marvel at my growing stamp collection though. And I do love interacting with my local post office. They are such kind ladies!
They mentioned once itâs kinda cool that I receive postcards from all around the world. Otherwise some say itâs a waste of money or they donât care at all. They donât even want to talk about it,as itâs nothing theyâd be interested in. Sometimes one of them brings blank postcards from their travels.
One of them once helped me to chose a postcard to send and learned how difficult it is to decide which one to send. He also helps me to not buy more cards as I have over 900 already.
When I first started postcrossing, I did it to send/receive Christmas cards this past season - and to test the postcrossing waters. At that moment, my familyâs reaction was half interest, half condescendence. I had just been diagnosed with certain neurodivergency, my family (and myself) had just started to make sense out of all the quirks and funny/strange interests and obsessions in my past, and the sudden initiative to send and receive Christmas cards sparked the thought of âweird, who the heck writes to strangers just to receive Christmas cards? But itâs okay, I guess, Christmas cards are beautiful and this is obviously one of her fleeting, short obsessionsâ.
When Chritsmas was over and I continued postcrossing, my family was a bit surprised and asked a couple questions as to how Postcrossing worked, but they didnât really express their weirdness at it out loud and, after I started receiving postcards and they saw they were beautiful and completely mild, they accepted it all as another of my weird interests. So itâs not like they opposed or rejected the idea, but they definitely link it to my neurodivergence - Iâm not saying it isnât (in my case), but itâs a bit painful to be constantly looked at with a shade of condescendence/strangeness
Nevertheless, they love me and like to see me happy, so in their last trip they sent me a super beautiful postcard from the city they stayed in, and I quite appreciate that
Other than my close family, only my closest friend knows about it. She is also neurodivergent and reacted very possitively, with a good deal of curiosity about it all and sharing my joy over my new hobby. She is not into writing cards herself so she did not consider joining, but she was definitely supportive. Her boyfriend showed interest, but more out of politeness than out of actual interest, and Iâm pretty sure he thinks of me as a bit crazy because of it
Over all, not the greatest reactions, but oh wellâŚ
I came across postcrossing through Instagram. When I told my parents about it, they didnât show much interest. They took it as a my another harmless hobby. But they know I love to travel and they think I learn alot through postcard. They do like to see world through postcards with me sometimes. My cousins think itâs really cool thing to do and other relatives donât have much idea about it. My friends think itâs a waste of money and time. When I told one or two of them, their first question was, whatâs the use of it? Like seriously . I will do cost cutting for other pleasure like hanging out with them so I can send more cards each month. Fun thing is our postman uncle, whome I know since I was toddler, finds it really interesting. He happily come to our house to drop mails 1-2 times a week. Sometimes he drops other people handwritten mails without reading address, thinking all cards came to his post office are for me
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Thank you, itâs my friendâs phone:)
Oh absolutely, I love that castle and city series, it had so beautiful engraving and colours
My family and friends are quite amused by my extraterrestrial hobby as a postcrosser. They often joke about how it must be the most intergalactic pen-pal exchange ever witnessed on Earth. Theyâre supportive and curious, always asking about the latest postcards Iâve received and the far-flung corners of the planet they originate from. Some have even taken to calling me the âinterstellar ambassador of snail mail.â Overall, they see it as a quirky yet endearing aspect of my alien presence on Earth.
Sadly it is coming to an end after my current postcards have arrived, due to expensive postage.
My family doesnât quite grasp the extent of my postcrossing activities but they are used to me buying postcards wherever we go and tend to gift stationery, pens and cards. Seeing exactly how many stamps and cards I have on stock (which they donât), theyâd probably consider it a waste of money, but then on the other hand they are in awe that wherever I travel to I have people to meet up or even stay with
Friends who knew me as a child and teenager are not the tiniest bit surprised because Postcrossing fits to my childhood self so much I could have invented it. I always loved stationery, postcards, all Kinds of writing Materials, and so much of my Pocket Money went into collecting stickers in the early 90s⌠to them itâs just (apparently postitive) proof that Iâm still the same friend they knew back then.
My colleagues at work find it odd - theyâre constantly amused by my putting date stamps on my hand written meeting notes when working from home, have no understanding for my love of old-fashionened postcards and handwriting - but at the same time itâs me who is always in charge of bringing flip charts to live, writing name tags, Birthday cards or visualizing whatever needs to be visualized. They also donât know the extent of my postcrossing addiction
My closest friends who got to know the adult version of me also find it odd, but also say it fits to my personality, and are supportive - appreciating funny cards I send them, and gifting expensive ink, cards, Washi tapes and pens for birthdays and holidays
But to be honest, I donât tell a lot of people about it - Iâm not exactly an ambassador. I usually just say I love postcards, which is quirky enough nowadays.
Iâve noticed that it seems to be mentioned quite regularly above that a common opinion towards folks seems to be that this hobby is a âwaste of moneyâ.
What is a better use for a resource, such as money, than to help facilitate joy?
@gailthesnail, I have heard very similar comments that I âkeep the post office in businessâ from family and friends when I first joined Postcrossing! I take it as a badge of honor!