Snailmail vs Email

I chose to write an email to a person at the company that I work for, he previously was my direct manager and has since been promoted twice so he is now my boss’s, boss’s, boss. He was actually the person who hired me on with the company, and he is now my boyfriend’s direct manager. He was my mentor; he taught me most of what I know about being successful at our company. He also hired my boyfriend and has been instrumental in his success at the company. We email and text message each other regularly at work, which is why I chose to write the email letter to him. The person I wrote the pen and paper letter to is my Grandma. She is one of my favorite people on the planet. Even though she uses the internet to email me frequently, we once communicated via pen and paper before she knew how to work her email. She still sends me birthday and Christmas cards through the mail. Both of my parents and my grandparents use the internet to communicate. My grandma travels often, I actually had to call her to see which address I should mail this letter too. I didn’t tell her what I was sending to her just that I needed the address to where she would be in about a week or a week and a half. (I don’t even have any idea how long it takes for a letter to get from my house to southern California via regular mail, the only shipping I do is through UPS usually.)

I composed my letter to Jesse (my boss’s, boss’s, boss) in Word, I wrote in a business letter format, just for affect J. I knew he would think it was funny; we have a very relaxed relationship. I actually needed him to write me a letter or recommendation for another class so I thought this would be a topic for my letter. I let him know how important I think he was to my success at the company and how much I appreciate him and his guidance that he has offered to both my boyfriend and myself. He got back to me within the day. I sent him the letter last Wednesday morning and on Wednesday afternoon he had already responded and he had a letter of recommendation for me on Friday afternoon. He’s a very efficient individual. I have spoken to him five or six times since I sent him the letter and got my response.

I wrote my Grandma’s letter on Wednesday morning also. It took me much longer and I was less satisfied with it’s physical appearance than the letter I wrote to Jesse. I am not a big fan of my penmanship. I love using Microsoft Word because it corrects my grammar, punctuation, spelling, and always looks so much neater and cleaner than my handwriting. My Grandma loves me whether I spell everything correctly or have amazing handwriting or not but I can’t say the same is true of employers, current or future, or professional contacts in general. After I wrote my letter to my grandma I realized that I didn’t have any stamps in my house and that I have no idea where the post office is from my house in Salem. Apparently you can purchase stamps at grocery stores, I honestly didn’t know that. I thought you had to get them at the post office…. shows how much I mail things. I ended up not being able to mail it until Thursday because I didn’t learn that stamps could be purchased at grocery stores until Wednesday night when my boyfriend informed me. I’m not even sure if the letter has reached my Grandma’s house yet. I am planning on calling her as soon as I have a second, to see if she has gotten it yet. It could have been lost somehow in the mail. That’s not really something I had to worry about with the email. If it doesn’t get to the person I sent it to I get a message in my box immediately informing me that it wasn’t delivered. I am pretty sure I wrote less in the letter to my Grandma than I would have liked to but I was working hard on my penmanship and writing is harder on the hands than typing either way.

I very much prefer email.