Dear Liz, | Teen Ink

Dear Liz,

December 1, 2018
By nothing_gold GOLD, Potomac, Maryland
nothing_gold GOLD, Potomac, Maryland
12 articles 9 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Everything's science fiction until someone makes it science fact." -Warcross, Marie Lu


August 3rd, 2009

Dear Liz,


I know I just moved last week but I

miss you so much already!!! We’re still getting

settled into our new house. My room is suuuuuuper

small. But at least I don’t have to share with

my sister anymore.

How are things back in Virginia? Say hi to

your family for me!


Miss you,

Nat

 

August 10th, 2009

Dear Nat,


Oh my gosh how is New York?! I’ve never been

there but I’ve always wanted to go. You live near

NYC right? That’s sooo cool.

Everything is pretty normal back in VA, except

that you’re not across the street anymore. A new

family just moved in. They have a kid our age,

but he seems annoying.


Keep in touch,

Liz

 

September 1st, 2009

Dear Liz,


Sorry this reply is a little late! I’ve been

busy preparing to go back to school. Today was

the first day. Everyone at my school is nice. How

is 4th grade going for you?

Anyways, Mom took me and Olivia to

see a Broddway Broadway show, “The Lion King.”

It was great but my sister fell asleep in the middle.

Dad took pictures, though!! I’ll put some in the

envelope for you to see.


Best,

Nat

 

September 27th, 2009

Dear Nat,


WOW!! I wish I was there, too. Thanks for the

pictures, they looked so cool. Now I just need to

get dad to let me go one day.


School didn’t start until the 8th for us. Ha ha! You

had to start school one week early :)


You know that kid I was talking about in the past

letter? His name is Chris. He’s a BIG BULLY.

send help.


-Liz

 

October 31st, 2009

Dear Liz,


BOO! Happy Halloween!! But you probably

won’t get this letter until sometime in Nov.

anyways, so you’ve probably already had

Halloween. I was a space alien this year. What

did you dress up as?


Oh no, I’m sorry Chris is being a meanie!

No one here is that mean, but I still don’t really

have any friends other than you and Zoe.


-Nat

 

December 14th, 2009

Dear Nat,


I actually didn’t go this year. I wanted to be

a witch but then my friends made fun of me

because they thought Halloween was for babies.

So then I stayed home instead of going to the

parade like usual.


Oh yeah! I almost forgot about your cat. How is

Zoe doing?


-Liz

 

January 18th, 2010

Dear Liz,


Aww, that wasn’t very nice of your

friends. Why didn’t you just go by yourself?


Zoe actually just got sick. But the vet

says she’ll get better soon.


Also happy 10th birthday! That was last

Tuesday, right? Wow, you’re double digits now.

I still have to wait until March.


-Nat

 

March 2nd, 2010

Dear Nat,


Hahahaha!! I know I sent this letter on the 2nd

but by the time you receive it, it should be your

birthday. My mom told me that it takes 6 days to

send a letter from VA to NY so I planned ahead.


Yayyy, you’re double digits now!! Just like me.


-Liz

 

June 23rd, 2010

Dear Nat,


Are you alright? I haven’t heard from you

since winter, and school’s over now.


-Liz

 

August 3rd, 2010

Dear Liz,


Sorry. Zoe was sick for weeks and

then she passed away. I miss her.


-Nat

 

November 9th, 2010

Dear Nat,


That’s terrible. I’m so sorry. I hope you feel

better soon.


-Liz

 

October 17th, 2012

Dear Liz,


Hey. I’m not sure if you still remember

me - or at least, remember me well enough to

want to become my friend once more. Sorry I

haven’t been keeping up with our letters. I was

just organizing my closet the other day and I

stumbled across these old envelopes. I opened

them and all the memories came back… and

for some crazy reason, I wanted to become your

friend again.

You have a telephone at home, right?

My mom’s phone number is 845-323-1932, so

you can call hers if you want. How’s middle

school so far?


-Nat

 

May 14th, 2013

Dear Nat,


Sorry I never called. I know you wrote down

a phone number in your letter but then I lost the sheet and I don’t remember what it was.

Could you send it again?


-Liz

 

December 8th, 2013

Dear Liz,


That’s fine. Let’s just write letters, the whole

‘pen-pal’ thing is pretty cool because people rarely

do it anymore.


How’s life going? You’d always mention

this annoying dude named Chris in our letters when

we were kids. How is he now?

-Nat

 

June 19th, 2014

Dear Nat,


Chris is a jerk, as always. He just broke up

with me and went after this other lame girl in

my Spanish class. And he’d been cheating on

me. I just want to die right now.


-Liz

 

July 21st, 2014

Dear Liz,


Don’t say that!! You might want to talk

to someone about it if you still aren’t feeling

better. I’m so sorry about what happened and I

hope things work out for you. Stay safe <3


-Nat


September 30th, 2014

Liz?


I haven’t heard from you since June and

what you wrote really worried me. Please, please

at least let me know you’re okay.


-Nat

 

December 1st, 2014

Liz,

Are you alright?

Please answer me.

Nat

.

.

.


11/12/18 2:30pm


nataliez245: hey liz

nataliez245: ...

nataliez245: you’ve changed

 

Read by elizabethskye3, 11/12/18 2:31pm


The author's comments:

When I was 8, I had a pen pal. I'd just moved from Virginia and since my best friend and I had neither a cell phone nor an email address, we kept in touch for about a year with snail mail. We fell out of touch in about 5th grade.

In the age of social media, the pen pale system has become obsolete. We now get to send messages in the blink of an eye. We now get to witness our peers change before our eyes through a feed of selfies and vlogs and tweets.

Kids now will never experience the anticipation while checking the mail every day, searching for a letter in a child's scrawl addressed with their name. Kids will never experience the euphoria when they finally recieve an envelope from their friend. With this story, told through the correspondence of Liz and Nat, I hope to communicate this experience while also conveying the bittersweet fallings-out and changes that we go through as teens.


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