Influences

Choose two people that have had an influence on you. Write a letter to each thanking them for their contributions to your life. Write one in long-hand (you know, pen, paper, stamp, that kind of thing) and one via email. Think and write about how you chose which one to send the message via snail mail and which via email. Also, write about the differences in the language, length, tone, etc. Are there any differences? What kind of responses to you get?

I decided to write my long-hand letter to my mom, and the email to my dad. The reason being that my mom would appreciate the gesture of taking the time to write it; whereas my dad would appreciate it the same from either method.

My initial strands of thought hovered around why my mom would appreciate the snail mail version more than my dad. I think because women are seen as the more caring gender, they can better understand the time it took to write. With my dad, it's always truthful, I say what I mean and he takes my words with weight. There is no need to make a big deal of it, we both understand each other, it's just not how he and I are wired. So sending him an email version, he appreciates it just as much. He's a very business oriented kind of person, so say what needs to be said and be done with it.

With my mom I wrote more emotional filled information, and she usually likes to know what's going on in my day to day life, so I wrote about some of the current things going on in my life after thanking her. In my opinion, I actually think she would care more about what's going on in my life rather than to hear me her thank her. Not that she's ungrateful, it's just that I've already done this assignment a few times before, and I think she gets the point. Nonetheless, I wrote about how she has helped me in my life and thanking her for everything she has done.

In regards with the letter to my dad, it was fairly light and simple. Simple how I'm doing, what's going on, new things I've learned, thanking him(obviously) for what how he has contributed to my life. It was short, just a couple paragraphs.

I unfortunately didn't start this assignment early enough, and have not had time to receive a response. I expect that my mom will call me and thank me, ask about why I wrote it, and probably offer words of encouragement in my finals terms here at OSU. My dad more than likely will respond via email, simply because thats the form of contact I used to contact him.