Why I still send postcards and you should too!

As Salient’s unofficial Canadian correspondent, I’ve been writing far and wide. I even managed to write an entire satire piece on my flight from Vancouver to Quebec City. But one habit I’ve picked up on my travels has nothing to do with writing for magazines. 

It’s postcards.

Yes, postcards: the outdated mode of communication used exclusively by old people, or left at the scene of a crime so the grizzled detective knows where to look next.

I have sent upwards of 15 postcards on my journey, and no letterbox has been safe. Friends, family, even our editor Phoebe Robertson have all fallen victim. And I am here to convince you that you should be sending them too.

For starters, postcards are personal. Everyone likes discovering that a friend on the other side of the world has thought of them. Plus, you get to become the bane of their fridge, plastered there indefinitely beside a funeral programme and a Dominos discount code. 

The choice is practically infinite. Head down to your local Welly Collective and browse the racks. What will you send your grandma back home? An obvious tourist attraction? A photo of the Beehive? Perhaps a sweeping landscape or a thoughtfully painted watercolour? Sometimes, small-town museums even give out free postcards featuring the surrounding area. 

Shoutout to the unlucky soul who received a photo of the Whitman House Museum and Tourist Bureau of Canso, Nova Scotia, from me.

You can also make your own postcards! All you need is card paper, an address, and a stamp to put on it. You can cut up a cereal box if you want to prove to your parents that you do, in fact, eat breakfast without them making it for you. Just check with the post office—larger sized ones will cost a little extra to post.

Whether the postcard is particularly beautiful or not, you get to imagine your friend opening their mailbox and finding something that isn't a bill, a flyer, or a suspiciously thin envelope from the government. Instead, there you are, smiling smugly from 3000 kilometres away, informing them that the weather is lovely and that you have eaten an unreasonable amount of food.

Postcards also make excellent souvenirs because they don't require you to find space in your suitcase for a miniature lighthouse, an aggressively ugly fridge magnet, or a T-shirt that says “I Heart Wellington.”

You can collect them yourself, too. My wall is now lined with postcards that cost less than a dollar each. I've got a map dotted with landmarks and coastlines of everywhere I’ve been. 

But you don’t even have to be travelling to enjoy postcards. They’re also excellent vehicles for low-brow comedy.

Imagine the look on your friend’s face when they receive a postcard from the exact town they currently live in. Send your mate a Wellington Cable Car postcard while they’re sitting at home in Wellington. Why not? Maybe include a terrible joke. 

My personal favourite is: “The weather is here, wish you were beautiful.”

That one’s for free.

So next time you're travelling, don't just take a photo of the postcard rack. Buy one. Find a stamp. Write something mildly embarrassing. Send it to someone you love.

And if you're really committed, send one to me.

I promise I'll put it on the fridge.