I have come to the realization that I am old-fashioned. No, wait, that’s not right. I’ve always known that I was old-fashioned, I’ve just recently compiled a list of evidence proving the point. So here goes.
1. I like to write letters. Writing letters, to me, shows that you really care about someone. Shooting emails or messages on Facebook is nice and all, but writing letters takes time. You have to put pen to paper, then buy envelopes and seal them up, address it, and put a stamp on it. Then you have to wait a really looooooong time for the letter to get to the person, and then another really looooooong time for them to write you back. Bleh. But then they have something to keep. Something to pull out when they feel down, and read, and fold and refold until the lines are creased. The handwriting itself shows things that typing doesn’t. You can tell where they got excited and maybe missed a word or spelled something wrong. You can see where they smudged the ink. Maybe they left a doodle next to their signature. Letters are just cool.
2. I prefer real books to ebooks. I mean, I can see the appeal in being able to carry around an entire library in your purse, but I feel like part of the excitement of books is when you can show someone your bookshelf. Like, hey, look, I have this many books! And they are all different shapes and sizes and have different paper and fonts. Some of them smell old, or new. The pages may be glossy or rough. Personally, I love to see where the page numbers are on the page. If they are at the top, or the side, or the bottom inside corner. It’s fascinating! Anyway, I could go on and on about books for weeks and still not tell you everything I love about them. When I get a new book, the first thing I do is smell it. And with an ebook, you can never tell how well loved the book is. One of my favorite things to do is to go into used book stores and search out the most battered books I can find. The ones with dog-eared pages and cracked spines. The ones that have tear stains in the sad parts. Someone wanted to immerse themselves in this story so many times that the book is tired. It’s beautiful!
3. When I write my stories, I tend to do it in a spiral bound notebook with a pen. I feel like that way I can’t get ahead of myself and jump to other parts. I mean, when I do get to the point where I need to brain dump, I will do it on my computer. But I prefer to write. That way I can cross things out. I get to see the pages get brittle with ink. My fingers get stained. Writers cramp is bad, but I would rather have writers cramp than typers cramp. I can write sideways, upside down, or backwards. It’s great!
4. Research. I don’t think anyone else my age has this problem, but I hate looking for internet sources when writing a paper. There’s just too much stuff to sort through! I would rather go to the library, where its quiet, and look through giant musty books that haven’t been checked out since before I was born. They just have so much information! And in books, there are usually entire books devoted to one subject, rather than having to filter through the entire web to find bits and scraps of facts. I’ll research in books any day.
5. I love to do stuff with my hands. I love to crochet, and I like trying to knit (even though I can’t, at all). My roommates call me grandma, because of it. It’s ok, I find it funny. I love to cook, too, which isn’t really old-fashioned, but when bundled with the rest of the stuff on this list, it just adds to it.
So, yep. I’m an old-fashioned eighteen year old. Oh, well. I love it!
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