letters 8, 9 and 10

Letter eight got sent to what might possibly be my youngest pen pal in this whole project.  At just 11 years old, my friend Lexi is not exactly one of my peers.  The story of how I met her is kind of interesting, though.

We were on the same cruise (Carnival Freedom) in July 2009 and I met she and her mom on the first night at the show.  We struck up a quick friendship and the next night, my family was saving seats for them at the next show.  (Little did I know, Lexi had an older brother traveling with her who I later hung out with!  And he was super cute...)  We only got to know each other over the course of a few days before parting ways; Lexi was headed home to Pennsylvania and I went back to Florida to get ready for senior year of high school.

Flash forward to now, three years later, and Lexi and I still keep in touch!  We text periodically and catch up on Facebook.  I don't know if or when I'll get to see her again, but I certainly hope that I do.  It is so special that we still keep in touch, so of course I had to send her a letter!

Letter nine is in a city I've never had the pleasure of visiting, beautiful, sunny Miami!  It is, hopefully, safe and sound in the hands of my good bud JC.  I met JC. at the University of Florida last spring and was so bummed when he graduated and left me behind that same semester!  He's now off conquering law school at UM while I continue in undergrad at Florida.  We haven't kept in the best of touch (law school will do that) but when we do catch up it is so wonderful!  I sent JC a letter basically just to remind him that although we don't necessarily talk that often, I still miss and care for him tons!  Like I've said before, I think a letter does a better job of illustrating that you care than a phone call, email or text message ever could.

The letter written by candlelight to Andrea

Letter ten got mailed to my beloved college town of Gainesville, FL!  I sent it to the one and only, fabulous, amazing human being that is Andrea Clavijo.  If you're reading this and you don't know her, I apologize because you're missing out in a big way.  As much as Andrea knows that I am a huge fan of her, I wanted to send her a letter to remind her of that.  She is one of the busiest people that I know so I'm hoping that my letter gave her two minutes to relax, smile and know that she is sooo wonderful!  The letter was kind of interesting because I had to write it only by candlelight-- literally!  There was a massive thunderstorm at my house that knocked out our power for a whole night.  I lit candles and used the time to write a letter before hitting the hay early.  I felt so primitive, but it was actually kind of nice!