Postcrossing Blog

Every so often, we do a little spotlight about a Postcrossing member, and this time we reached out to EvanescentHour, who lives in Illinois, USA. Without further ado, here are her answers to our questions!

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

I actually didn’t get into postcarding until 2021. So my earliest memory is still fairly recent. My first postcarding experience was driving around with my mother, trying to find a good place that sells postcards. For some reason, I remember that I was reading 'Small Favors' by Erin A Craig in the check out line.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

In 2020 I started getting super into travel and learning about countries outside of my own. I liked researching places that I wanted to travel too, like The Netherlands and Norway. While doing this research I remembered that when I was around six or seven years old I had a penpal from Ireland. I thought that I would get back into the penpaling hobby but, unfortunately, the phone number that my grandma had called to get me set up with a penpal is now defunct. So I started searching for other websites and services that help set people up with penpals. That’s how I came across Postcrossing. It wasn’t penpaling so I was a bit skeptical at first, but I love collecting things so I thought that I would give it a go.

What got me hooked was the community. I love seeing other people’s handwriting, how they use stickers and washi tape, and how they structure sentences. I enjoy going to the forums and talking to users there as well.

What’s one way that postcards have changed your life for the better?

Postcards have been super important to me. 2020–2022 had been very rough years for me and sending postcards helped brighten my day a little bit. They were something to make me smile when I felt like I didn’t have many other reasons to do so. They also helped me connect with my mother and grandmother.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I have! I went to a postcarding meetup with my mother and grandmother. It was an amazing experience, lots of friendly people and we had a nice lunch in this local cafe. The atmosphere was very relaxed and quaint and everyone seemed to connect right away. I also found out that I had met one of the people there BEFORE the actual meetup; we had talked to each other at an Eivør concert about two months prior to the Postcrossing meetup.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

My favorite Postcrossing coincidence is that I was browsing for users from the Bahamas to request a direct swap from and the profile that I clicked on, ended up being the user whose address I pulled!

I was also surprised to have gotten one from Guam.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

My favorite post card that I have received is the Blue Man Group postcard from this photo of my collection. I don’t have a close up picture of it but it has a special place in my heart because my mom surprised me with it one day. She knew that I was getting super into the hobby and when she visited Chicago she sent it back to me as a little memento. My mother has very recently passed away and so it’s nice to have this small piece of her with me.

As for postcards that I got from Postcrossing there are two that I really love and can’t choose between; there is this bat maxicard. I adore bats, they are my favorite animals and this is the first maxicard I’ve received. It’s also pretty new!

I also really love this one. Bellatrix is one of my all time favorite characters so it was super cool to get a postcard with her on it!

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I think that my favorite part of the process is actually walking to the mailbox! Both to send postcards and to check to see if I received any. I especially love doing so in the springtime when I can get a whiff of the lilacs and wet grass.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?

I like to say that I collect collections because I have so many from rocks to fandom merch. But my favorite collection is my CD and Vinyl collection. I have over 500 CD’s (my goal is to get 1000 of them). I have CD’s across almost all genres, my favorites are Symphonic Metal and Folk Metal.

My favorite hobbies aside from postcarding are creative writing and scrapbooking. Writing in particular; I have been making up fantasy stories since I could pick up a pencil. I love writing horror and fantasy the most and hope to be a published author one day. For now I share my stories with the world through fanfiction and have made a lot of friends that way.

Is there anything else that you are passionate about?

Music and nature are my passions. I also have an interest in bats, the goth subculture, storms, Dutch culture, and Swedish culture. I have autism so I get super super invested in all of these topics.

Music and the goth subculture are probably the two things that I am most invested in. I have a goal to discover and listen to one band from every country in every continent. So far I have listened to one band in every country in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America and one band in every US state. I am working on discovering one band from each Oceanic country.

The goth subculture has also been very important to me. For the longest time I had trouble making friends because I never really tried to 'mask’ my autism. The goth scene in itself is a subversion to societal norms and so I, already more of an outcast so to speak, found a home in that scene. I love the fashion and the music. I love the aesthetics. And I found that after putting on the corset and the choker, my confidence skyrocketed. I started making more friends both fellow goths and outsiders who were curious about why I dress the way I do.