Postcrossing has made checking my mailbox a completely new and exciting experience for me! Haha! 
No longer do I find it a chore to make a trip down to the basement car park, only to find spam mail and painful bills choking my mailbox. Now I fly to my mailbox every day hoping with all my heart to see postcards!
The sight of many postcards make me go, “Woohoo!!!”… the sight of only one or two postcards make me go, “Awwww!”… and the sight of no postcards make me say, “BoooOoooOooo…”
Like many people in this thread, I’m a shy person and find it difficult to talk to new people. I haven’t been using Postcrossing for very long, but already it’s alleviated a bit of my anxiety. The community is full of kind, welcoming people and that has made me feel more optimistic about the world in general.
Much like some other replies, postcrossing is a light in my life and helps me look forward to the next day. It’s also taught me compromise. I made a deal with myself that if I was going to start this up again, I can’t buy random things I don’t really need and instead save my money for postcrossing (mostly stamps cause we all know postage is pricey!) 
I’m a sociable and curious person even so I only have a couple of good friends. It’s too early to say if I have made friends via Postcrossing but it is the most appreciative community I’ve come across. My online contribution is small but I feel valued and that is how communication and friendships should be like - feeling valued, feeling part of. It’s great. What other motivation do you need?
Postcrossing has helped my Mum find joy as she deals with her recent diagnosis of bowel cancer and the surgery that has happened and chemotherapy to come. She has just loved receiving postcards and letters from a thread I left here on the forum. So much love and support from around the world. A huge thank you to those postcrossers who have responded to the thread and sent joy 
I’m glad Postcrossing helped your mom. Mine has been dealing with cancer for several years but never wanted to do Postcrossing. Four years ago, she had another disease. I created a 
profile for her to receive postcards. Initially I wrote them on her behalf; when she left hospital, I had her write a postcard every few days to improve her writing. Sadly, she never got hooked on it and stopped writing postcards as soon as she was able to write in a readable way. 
Best wishes to your mom!
Regards from Serbia. Postrcrossing helped a lot since i moved from capital city to village and many ‘‘friends’’ have forgotten me for past two years, it means a lot to have so many great cards, words and people saying hi and writing something important to them.
Postcrossing helped me to have a hobby finally. I am a type of person who gets bored and lose attention easily. But this didn’t happen with postcrossing 
Greetings from Canada. A few years back I was diagnosed with early onset dementia. I stopped working and reintroduced myself to my childhood hobby of writing and stamp collecting. Postcrossers have been very generous to me in sharing extra stamps from their own collections. Postcrossing makes my trip to the mailbox an adventure every day!!
Since I was a kid and forever from then on I wrote letters and postcards and sending and receiving letters meant the world to me. It takes you out of the dark and connects you with other people. You can learn so much, you can feel so munch warmth, friendship, interest and generousity from strangers. It totally changes your view on life.
And besides that every postcard is a little wonderland: the image, the stamps, the stickers, the words, the handwriting. The simple fact, that someone has taken time to write to you. Someone you don’t know anything about. It’s always like a hand reached out in kindness.
In this crazy, seemingly evil, aggressive world we live in, this is like a healing balm for your soul.
Welcome to Postcrossing! Don’t worry, cards will start to come in. It was the same for me when I first started. I sent five out and waited maybe a couple of weeks before I got my first card. Enjoy and have fun sending and receiving cards. Cheers, Anita Louise
Postcrossing has been amazing.
Postcrossing, and the Handmade tags and round robins specifically, have made me less fearful about trying new techniques on my handmade cards. The feedback I have gotten is always very positive, and I have become more willing to just play with design ideas, without worrying about how little or much the recipient will like it. I feel more creative, or at least less inhibited.
Postcrossing has given me a way to help others. To help them see Kansas in a new way. To help others feel like they are a part of something bigger than their corner of the world (cause they are) and mostly to help others not feel alone.
It is selfish but sending you a card helps me to feel like I had an opportunity to make a difference in your day, and maybe your week. I know that it does because it makes a difference in mine and my daughters when we get our post cards from you.
It’s 11 years ago that I had to deal with depressions. Sending out card was the only reason for me to leave my house.
And after 4 months at home the Bielefeld-Meeting was the first try if I was able to met more than one ot two person at a time.
And lucky me - everything went out very well.
Postcrossing helped me to survive. It’s the truth!
I don’t want to put all the blame on my parents, but it was them who sent me to a school, where deaf kids had been thaught. The teacher - she also was half deaf (couldn’t speak clearly).
When time went on, I got bullied because I was normal hearing.
At first ‘only’ things like hiding my pencil case, turning off the lights at the toilet or slapping me happend. I thought ‘okay, these are kids’ and so I didn’t report it to my teacher. It got like that the whole 4 years (from 1st to 4th grade). I tried to get out of school or at least to change the class, but my parents didn’t allowed it.
After going through these four years, I had to attend the same secondary school as these deaf kids (till the 8th grade). It had been a suggestion from my former teacher to attend the same secondary school and my parents agreed to this. There had been an extra class, where these deaf kids + me had been thaught again. I had the chance to spent half of the weekly lessons in the normal hearing class. The guys in the normal hearing class excluded me from all their activities, because they don’t like someone who is spending time with deaf kids.
I have to say, that I had become more and more shy, if the bullying continued.
On a friday in early February the so called ‘boss’ of the deaf kids said to me (unfortunately I looked in his direction and could read from his lips): 'You know that my birthday is on sunday. I expect your congrats. If you don’t wanna do so, something bad will happen." He threatened me. I don’t appreciate it, if someone threatens me, so I didn’t congratulate him.
On monday (after his birthday) after school ended he just lied in wait for me and hit me down when I was passing by. l lay there half awake and only beg that nothing is going to happen. If I’m putting my fingers up to my head I’m able to feel the cut caused through this.
No one took action due to this incident. My parents didn’t believe me and teachers couldn’t do anything because it happened out of school.
There had been ‘peanuts’ like putting slime in my schoolbag - but I had to accept this anyway. (I didn’t do anything against it, because things mighr get worse.)
Finally I entered high school at the age of 15. There I could left all the guys, who bullied me, behind me.
But due to these expierences I didn’t find any friends in highschool. I simply had been to shy. I was scared of getting refused (again).
I’m now 22 years old and never had any friends. I missed having friends all of my live so far. The only thing I always dreamed of, was a better childhood. But it seems that I’ve had too high expactations.
I’m so sorry you’ve had all these dreadful experiences, and weren’t protected by the people who should have been protecting you. Sending a bit of love from your fellow postcrosser 
Thank you for your kind words.
I hope that I can enable a better childhood to my child(ren) one day. They deserve it.
It’s helped me learn about differant cultures
I love Postcrossing for many reasons. And now it actually helps me. I have MS and am sitting in a wheel chair, so I can’t travel any longer (health, money reasons) - I am traveling thanks to the cards. And they are helping me to see the beauty in the world, in other people. It’s a great project all around!