Call me old school -- I'm using my fountain pen
As I was writing thank you notes to eleven attorneys who interviewed me as well as the recruiter who organized everything last week, it occurred to me that I hadn't received a thank you note myself in a while.After my interview, instead of debating over e-mail versus snailmail, I decided that handwritten notes were the right thing to do, and if the people I wanted to thank thought I was antiquated, so be it -- it would mean it wasn't the right workplace for me. I did fret a bit more than I'm letting on, after all, the economy has been through some major changes since I left private practice, and the market I'm trying to get back into is about 7000 lawyers smaller. But, how could I go wrong by sending a note? Who doesn't like a handwritten note?
Truth be told, I enjoyed writing the notes, trying to pick up the tone and a thread of my conversation with each person, that I decided to send a few personal notes as well.
I dropped one off in my neighbor's mailbox to thank her for a dinner party. She called me and warmly thanked me for the note, and invited me to a 4th of July picnic at the home of one of the other dinner guests. Score!
And, I sent a handwritten thank you note to Ellen, of Soft Spikes fame, for some purple large Soft Spikes she found for me. You can't adequately thank someone for a gift like that in an email.
But it occurred to me that I had two gifts outstanding with no thank you notes. Eventually, I got a two-sentence email thanking me for a gift from a high school friend whose wedding I couldn't attend. And, I had to follow up on the gift to another friend -- it had been so long, I had to make sure it didn't get lost in the mail. A week after my email, I did get an email thank you. That was a baby gift, so I suppose I should give the sleep-deprived parents a non-judgmental break.
No matter. Fully in line with living my life in the world the way I'd like it to be, I decided I needed to be even more of a thank you note writer. I marched down to Vroman's stationary store to look at personalized stationary options. At $4-9 per card & envelope, it's not in my future. I am, however, considering getting an embosser with my name on it so I can pay once and use forever. And, I do love writing notes with my fountain pen.
What was the last handwritten note you wrote? Received? Thoughts about e-mail versus snailmail?
















