My postcard collection is one of my most prized possessions. It ranks in the top three along with my passport and the 704 phone number that I’ve had since I first got a phone when I was 13. It all started when I was studying abroad in London. As I was walking the Strand, I saw a few turnstiles of postcards. It jogged my memory. My mom had told me that she wanted to receive international mail from me. As I was standing there, I started counting the people I might need them for. One for my mom. One for my Aunt Pat. One for my best friend, Hannah. Positive that I’d think of others as soon as I left the shop, I grabbed a couple of extras, thinking I also may just want one to keep.

Flash forward to the next week, I was in Prague, and I thought it may be a nice tradition to send my Aunt Pat a postcard at every destination I visited. She was a 90-year-old woman who lived alone. Mail was probably the most exciting time of her day, and she’d be missing the regular visits that we typically had while I was in D.C. during the semester. So, I grabbed postcards in Prague. One for Aunt Pat, one for me. The tradition had been born.

Every other location that I visited that semester, I collected a postcard as a way to remember my travel. After I returned to my dorm, I hung it up on my bulletin board. It was such a special way to visually see the travel that I was accomplishing, and it was also really easy to slip a small postcard into my backpack. No need to worry about knick-knacks or souvenirs.

My Criteria for Selecting Postcards

I selected my first postcard (London) just because I liked it. I simply picked one based on what I liked at that moment. It wasn’t anything incredibly thoughtful. However, when I went to pick out my Prague postcard, I thought back to that London postcard. I wanted them to be somewhat uniform. During that initial study abroad period, I began to develop criteria that postcards needed to have in order to make it into my collection. In some cities, postcards are abundant, and in some, they’re not. I couldn’t be super picky, but I also wanted there to be a general theme. So, here’s what I came up with.

• A single picture as the background (as large as possible)
• The name of the city/country I was in (something my London postcard doesn’t feature)
• Features a landmark I liked or felt attached to (if possible)

You’ll note that some of my postcards slightly bend this criterion. When this is the case, you’ll know that I simply didn’t have many options in the city. In some places, like London, postcards are abundant. Others, like Myanmar, I traversed an enter city to get my hands on one.

My Postcard Collection

Without further ado, here is my current postcard collection up to October 2021. It’s not complete for every country I’ve been to. For example, off the top of my head, I’m missing Cuba because my collection started in 2018 after I visited Cuba in 2017. Additionally, in some countries like Lesotho and Eswatini, I didn’t see anywhere with postcards, or in countries with unusual travel arrangements like Oman, I simply had no opportunity to look in shops that may have had them. I hope one day I’ll head back to some of these places and add to my collection.

Final Thoughts

Initially, during my study abroad, my goal was to get a postcard in every city I visited. However, I’ve since adjusted this practice to buying a postcard in every country I visit. I find it to be much more realistic, especially when countries don’t sell postcards as often.

For example, Japan was a country that you may expect to sell postcards, but I found it difficult to locate a postcard in Tokyo. After that experience, I didn’t really want the stress of having to hunt for one in Kyoto as well. I’ve also learned that if I happen to see a stand or turnstile that sells postcards that I shouldn’t put off buying one. I used to think, “Oh, I’ll be able to do that. I’ll see them again,” but too often I end up hunting for a dang postcard in my last days/hours in a country…even at the airport.

To read more about the woman who started it all, check out my blog post on To My Aunt Pat.