French teacher Janissa Zahn took out bags and bags of a blend of French and English letters that she had stowed away in a big, rusty box that she had brought along with her to California all the way from Arizona, her hometown. She had promised herself that one day, she would eventually take out all the letters in there and read them. She believes that the letters must have meant something to her as she had kept all those letters for over two decades and brought them along with her when she moved.

As part of a pen pal program that she signed up for when she was in college, Zahn was able to exchange a lot of letters with university students like her in France. Similar to how she was interested in French culture, her correspondents were interested in American culture and inquired about that. She recalls how she was a popular candidate for people to send letters to due to her being from Arizona, which is covered with hot deserts, something that people who lived in the temperate climate of France were curious about. She wasn’t able to respond to all of those who sent her letters but she grew close with several people who she would regularly write letters to, leading some of them to visit her in Arizona.

Photo by Kalyani Puthenpurayil

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