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What's a Pen Pal?
What's a Pen Pal?
A pen pal is a partner that one communicates with, forming a relationship through writing letters. You can join programs pen paling with students, strangers, nursing home residents, prison inmates, and more. There are numerous benefits and reasons to pen pal.
Why You Should Pen Pal
Why You Should Pen Pal
Pen paling can improve your mental health, as writing about your emotions and feelings is known to be therapeutic. By writing, you can organize your thoughts, stop the mind from working, and calm down. Additionally, writing your feelings down can reduce your stress response, and improve your overall mood. By pen paling with a nursing home resident, you can not only improve your own mental health, but greatly improve the mental health of the resident as well.
How to Start
How to Start
There are many existing pen pal organizations, such as Wish of a Lifetime, PenPal Schools, and Love For Our Elders, that are all great options to start a pen pal relationship. When you start writing your first letter, you should keep in mind a few helpful tips.
First, make sure to write a simple greeting such as "Hello, how are you doing today?" and introduce your name.
Second, you can tell your pen pal some basic facts about yourself such as your grade or occupation, characteristics about yourself, or your general location (city, state or country).
You can also mention how you found the pen pal partner, and why you would like to pen pal (such as to immerse yourself in a culture, learn a language, or just to seek friendship).
As it is an first pen pal letter to your partner, make sure to just introduce yourself and not write too much, as it can potentially overwhelm them with information.
Great topics to get started on:
Great topics to get started on:
What's your name?
How old are you? What grade are you in? What nursing home do you live in?
Where are you from?
Do you have a pet?
How many people are in your family?
What do you like to do with your friends/family?
What’s your favorite animal?
What’s your favorite song? What’s your favorite type of music?
What is your favorite book? What’s the last book you read?
What is your favorite movie? What movie do you really want to watch? What’s your favorite movie genre?
Who’s your favorite actor/actress?
Do you play a sport?
Do you play a musical instrument?
What is your favorite subject?
What is the best place you’ve ever been to?
Have you ever had a job? What was/is it?
What’s your biggest accomplishment?
What is your favorite moment/memory?
Do you like high school? Did you like high school?
Do you want to go to college? If yes, where? Did you go to college? If yes, where?
What life event changed your life?
What’s something in society you want to fix?
What’s something you want to know more about?
Who is your biggest inspiration?
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
What’s something you want to accomplish?
About Us
About Us
We are student researchers at Staten Island Technical High School. We conducted research on how pen pals effect mood and mental health (from students to nursing home residents). Our research showed that students and nursing home residents generally enjoyed sending/recieving letters. Some even showed decreases in stress and lonliness, as well as improved mental health and mood, so we created this website in order to share our findings.
Contact Us!
Contact Us!
References
References
Smyth, J. M., Hockemeyer, J. R., & Tulloch, H. (2008). Expressive writing and post-traumatic
stress disorder: Effects on trauma symptoms, mood states, and cortisol reactivity.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5622129_Expressive_writing_and_post-traumatic_stress_disorder_Effects_on_trauma_symptoms_mood_states_and_cortisol_reactivity
Murnahan, B. (2010) Stress and Anxiety Reduction Due to Writing Diaries, Journals, E-mail,
and Weblogs.
https://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1217&context=honors
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/689684130415820212/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/777363585675127495/
https://www.techlicious.com/images/misc/valentine-card-concept-100px.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ca2Om5H.jpg
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