Hi r/penpals! In the past few weeks my life took a bit of a change (for the better), and now I’m feeling so good about everything. Since everything is good again now, I have time to get a penpal (or two) to write emails to, or any other creative thing that we want to do. I’ve seen some fun ideas around this sub, such as keeping a shared diary in Google Drive or just straight messaging through Slowly/Discord, so I’m definitely open to trying out something else too. So that’s the reason I’m posting here today!

I’m a 27-year-old Dutch guy who’s also living in the Netherlands. I’m starting a traineeship in IT pretty soon, which is actually one of the reasons I’m looking for a penpal. We’re supposed to go on a bootcamp for two months, and I’ll be staying in a hotel during that time. So I thought it would be fun to have someone to write to during that time.. and hopefully after that too of course! Before this I studied psychology, mostly social and environmental psychology, so it’s actually quite a new field that I’m venturing into and I’m very excited to do so! And a little bit nervous, but I suppose I haven’t been accepted to this traineeship for no reason :)

In my free time I like to do a variety of things. I like hanging out with my friends, either just to talk a bit, to go out, or to play some games. I love board games, and I’m pretty competitive when I play them. I am a good loser though, so don’t worry about me losing my cool! I also like to play video games, mostly single player games like Zelda: BotW, Stardew Valley, Yakuza, and a whole lot more. One multiplayer game that I do enjoy currently is Apex Legends though, and I occasionally like to play some games in coop. Besides games I also like running and with this good weather coming up, it’s definitely something that I’ll be doing more. Reading is also something I enjoy, just like movies and tv shows (so excited that GoT started again!) Oh, and I love photography!

Overall I’m a pretty curious guy and I think I can talk about pretty much anything. I enjoy learning random tidbits and facts and like discussing anything. I love getting to know new people, about their lives, their cultures, their countries, their thoughts and beliefs, so basically anything about you. I also like to be there for other people and I think I’m a great listener, so I’m also very happy to listen to anything you’re currently dealing with, if you need that.

Exchanging pictures is something I would also like (eventually). Pictures of your pets if you have any, that brand new thing you just bought because it looked cool, the book you’re reading, the doodle you drew trying to pay attention to something else, or just pictures of your environment or the life you’re living. I’d love all of that! Of course I’m also very happy to do the same if you’re into that as well. I won’t ever demand any pictures of course, but pictures definitely help me ‘picture’ stuff as I often have trouble visualizing things (ever heard of aphantasia?) Oh, and I’m happy to show you any of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken :)

What I’m hoping to get out of this is someone who likes to email back and forth, writing medium/long emails about whatever we like. Or like I said at the start of this post, any creative outlet that we both might like. I’ve communicated solely through questionnaires for a few weeks with someone before, so you could say that I’m open for some out-of-the-box penpalling :). Normal email is very cool too, don’t get me wrong. Oh, and eventually sending occasional postcards would be cool too! I just don’t want to do purely snail mail for now, because I want someone I can write to more frequently than snail mail can offer.

If you think becoming penpals with me sounds interesting, please send me a message and tell me a little bit about yourself. Hope to hear from you! :)