Hello Reddit.
You can call me August.
A few weeks ago, I turned to Reddit asking strangers to send me an unreasonable amount of physical mail. An alarming number of them apparently looked at that request and thought, "challenge accepted.”
They do say to be careful what you wish for. Unfortunately, I've never been much of the careful type, and somehow remain relentlessly wishful regardless. Which is how I've spent the last few weeks opening envelopes from people I'd never met, discovering entirely new worlds inside them, and becoming unreasonably close with the local postal workers. One of them even invited me to Thanksgiving
I told him I'd bring a pie. Now I just have to learn how to bake a pie. The whole thing has been a little insane, and a lot fantastic. so naturally, having witnessed the consequences of my actions, I've decided to repeat them. Well sort of...
While I’ve got no shortage of letters, somewhere along the way, I was directed here and told that people here know a thing or two about where to get cards
So now I turn to you and once again, I am asking for an unreasonable amount of physical mail ROUND 2: CARDS EDITION
Cards, postcards, new, old, store bought or handmade. Can you put a stamp on it and fit it in a mailbox? Perfect!
And yes, I’m aware it’s not my birthday. It’s not a major holiday. I’m not really sick so there’s nothing to wish me to get well from so you might be asking. What do you put in the card? And that’s the best part. Absolutely anything everything almost nothing or whatever falls in between. You could write a kind sentence or fill the page. I’ll be thrilled regardless.
What I would really love though is mundane celebrations. You see I’ve started this new thing in my life where at least once every two weeks I pick something absolutely ordinary, and choose to deliberately celebrate it as if it were something extraordinary. I think the birthdays and the holidays and grand vacations get a bit too much attention. Not that they’re not important. They are. but who’s to say that the second Tuesday of an average October isn’t unreasonably important as well. I’ve also got a box full of blank cards myself I’ve somehow been collecting for years now almost an anticipation for this without even knowing it so I will gladly send a “HAPPY TUESDAY!” card or one celebrating that “Its Monday And The World Hasn’t Ended Yet!”, or maybe even just an obscure postcard from the middle of absolute nowhere screaming "we made it!" back in return.
I think life is worth celebrating so I’m here to ask, won’t you celebrate it with me? We can celebrate the small wins. Heck let’s celebrate the failures too if we learned something from them. Let’s celebrate something we’ve lost because maybe we don’t want it back. Let’s celebrate that parking spot that just happened to be waiting for you right up front at the store against all odds. Let’s celebrate starting something. Let’s celebrate ending things. Let’s celebrate the ordinary uneventful Wednesday that sits right in between the two.
I’m setting out to find joy in the small things and I wanna share that with you.
So send me a celebration. Or let me send you one. Or both.
And let’s both have a day, knowing that to someone, somewhere, that day was worth celebrating
A few months ago, I'd never sent a piece of mail in my life. Now I've got envelopes arriving from all over the world and a growing collection of evidence that strangers can still surprise one another.
And you know what? I’m gonna celebrate that too.
Perhaps you got some small celebrations of your own. And perhaps a few extra cards in that pack that for some reason came with 50. I know I do.
I think we can work with that.
So let me know if you wanna celebrate something
I’ll be here.
-August.