The one change that worked: I sent myself a letter – and realised what’s missing in this world of WhatsApp

I’ve started writing to my sister, my mum, my friends … Not everyone writes back, but when we connect it’s on a deeper level than any group chat Last January, I received a letter.

Most of my post was predictably boring – a statement from the water company, my credit card bill, the occasional update about my pension contributions – but this letter was different.

The envelope felt heavier than the run-of-the-mill ones I was used to.

It was postmarked Paris, a place I had little connection to, and, most strikingly, it was addressed in messy handwriting – my own.

I had completely forgotten I’d written it until it turned up on my doorstep.

On a trip to Paris the year before, I had visited a letter-writing cafe.

The idea was simple: you wrote a letter (usually to yourself), the cafe kept it safe and sent it a year later.

So, alongside trying escargots for the first time, I wrote a letter filled with questions about my not-so-distant future and addressed it to my home, in London.

What will you be doing? Where will you be living? Do you have a boyfriend? Continue reading...