Endangered

I was helping my mom sort things out in our attic and she had me go through these bags we placed at the corner with the things that we were able to salvage after Ondoy ate up our house in Pasig. It was pretty nostalgic looking at old pictures, feeling a bit sad that some of them had smudged at the borders while others were just plain indecipherable. I saw old photos of my great grandmother and it felt good that we were able to save something that reminded us of her, despite the tattered state of the photographs. There were old notes and drawings and letters and I was making good progress on sorting them out...

Until I came across love letters— love letters addressed to my mom. The papers and cards were all brittle, partly because they were old and partly or actually mostly, because they’ve been soaked in flood water, but the contents were still readable. 

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel weird on seeing these old letters from her former boyfriends (and there was a lot, let me tell you). In fact I found myself smiling as I skimmed through them. 

Some of the notes were short messages telling her how the phone at home was busy and they’d just call that evening. Some of the cards had lyrics of old songs written on their corners. Some of the letters were long with poems at one flap of the card and other cheesy what-not on the other. Oh hell, were they cheesy.   

And as I continued to skim through the mountains of cards and letters, I found myself smiling sadly at each piece of paper.

These notes, these letters were memories. They were special. And they weren’t special because they were written during anniversaries or birthdays or other special occasions. These letters were special because they were written on ordinary days that merited no special attention. They were written just because the guy remembered the girl. They were written just because the guy was thinking of the girl at that time of the day. They were written “just because”— only then did I realize the true meaning of that phrase.

And the fact that they were written out of no apparent reason or special occasion, the fact that they were written “just because”— that made them more special than any other anniversary or valentine card written for the sake of the occasion.

Whatever happened to those long, handwritten letters that were folded in almost all the ways you can imagine? Whatever happened to those little notes that you ask your seatmate to pass in class? Whatever happened to wooing a girl through crappy songs sung out of pitch or through illegible letters delivered through bridges?

I’m not saying that these are now non-existent— maybe endangered, but not completely extinct.

There are guys out there who would give you things out of the blue. There are those who would text or call to say random cheesy messages. There are those who would skype or message you to see how your day went, or would drive by just to see your face. There are those who would write to you on cards from bookstores on your anniversary, your monthsary, your nth-sary and there are even those who would make cards for that special occasion.

But just how many guys would write to you on an ordinary day just to let you know that you’re on their mind, no matter how busy their day has been? 

How long has it been since you’ve received a letter or a card on your doorstep or in your mailbox? In fact, have you ever received a lengthy, hand-written letter in the first place?

In this age and time where everything is just a click away, where everything is instant, some people tend to forget that one of the best ways to the heart is not by forcibly plunging through but by slowly climbing in. No matter what girls may say, some of them still dream of being swept off their feet, and not because everything happened so fast. 

Some girls love to be wooed with long, handwritten letters. They love surprises on their doorsteps that would brighten up a bad day or make a good day even better. They adore being remembered on special occasions but they love being remembered at the most random moments as well. 

As much as a girl appreciates the big gestures, as much as they make her smile one of her brightest smiles, at the end of the day, it’s the little ones that would almost always make her smile from her heart.