welcome to wap, its good to have you with us

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this mod needs coffee

Ha, am I the only one who found out about this site on TV?

I found out about WAP on tv a few years ago. I had one pp that I wrote to and we lost contact. It has been about 3 years since I had a pp. I was just browsing the site one day a couple of months ago and noticed a ad that just really pulled at me. He is local and I could tell right away totally different than anyone I had seen on here. He is an amazing person. He had a great life going for himself and made a choice to drive drunk after a party one night. He was not a big drinker just ran into his best friend after along time apart and they were having a few beers together. Anyways, he wrecked his truck and his best friend was killed in the accident. Its a very tragic story. He still has a hard time forgiving himself. He has been in for 6 years now and has about a year and half to go. I am so glad that I wrote to him!

First welcome to Write A Prisoner everyone.

I was browsing for pen pals in 2000 and ran across Write A Prisoner it took me about 7 months to actually start talking the first ones that I met here was Lulu and Mike (RIP my friend) they made me feel welcome and like I was at home. I have had over 200 penpals since then some are now free and some are still inside.

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I like to talk.

You'd never have guessed huh?

Well I originally just wanted to write to someone (preferrably Stateside, because despite all of y'all spelling stuff crazily , I didn't want a huge language barrier!!) so I put an ad of my own on a pen-pal site online.

I wasn't sure how many (if any) peeps would reply to me as there were thousands of ads put on there every week and I didn't think mine stood out particularly well. But they did reply. In droves. All weirdos. I think I must have some kind of insanity-magnet that pulls crazies to me like moths to a flame, because almost all of the replies I got were from nutters. We had the inbred-redneck-religiobot wasp fanatics, the Nigerian scam artists wanting to launder some money through my bank account and the guys who wanted to solicit some other kind of service methinks.

I wasn't hopeful. But then I got a reply from a woman who wanted me to write her son. I hadn't planned on writing an inmate, but she was nice and normal and I decided to give it a go. And for a while it was fine. I was glad to have given him a chance. And his mom suggested I write another inmate too, so I rocked up here looking for pp no. 2.

And at first, as I was ploughing through myriad adverts, many sounding the same, I wasn't that impressed. I hope that doesn't sound disrespectful to other people on the site, it's really not meant to. I just mean that there didn't seem to be anyone who I thought would be someone I would get on well with.

And then I found an advert from a guy whose advert just stuck out from so many others. He seemed normal, down to earth, honest, sincere and straighforward. We had a few similar interests/likes and he came across really well. Very personable and with a sense of humour. So I wrote to him.

And now we're still writing. Despite a few hassles from the mail room who rejected my first letter for being heavier than 1 ounce (mine normally average at least 3oz!) which led to me having to repost it bacl out in four or five separate envelopes (as is now the norm), it's all been grand!! We're getting along grand, have had some good exchanges and I'm really glad he agreed to let me be his pen pal. I really look forward to every letter he sends (10-12 pages each week, sometimes more! Am so glad he's not someone who struggles to write 2 pages!),

Funny thing is, the guy I first started writing to suddenly decided that he didn't want to write me anymore and passed on my details to some other guy on his block, which annoyed me. I didn't like the idea of just being passed on so casually and I didn't know a thing about him. Not only that, but I wasn't exactly blown away by what he had to say. So I decided not to write him. No point in starting something I wasn't completely interested in pursuing - I would only have ended up feeling as though writing to him was a chore, not an enjoyable thing.

So I now just write the one guy. And it's better that way. I don't have a whole load of free time in my ever-so-hectic life, what with work and friends and family and a social life. So it makes sense to me focus all my letter-writing energy on one person who I know I enjoy hearing from, than just knock out a few hastily written 2 pages that didn't allow me to build up a proper friendship with anyone.

Discovering this place has been a blast. I love all the advice and practical information, love the whole support thing and feel right at home ranting on at y'all....

Bex

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"True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it." ~ Pliny The Elder (23AD - 79AD)

Do you mean the guy where the mother had contacted you intially to write her son gave away your address? Thats's iritating. I would have been tempted to write a letter to his mother about that lol.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

I used to write a friend of mine when he was in... then when he came out, the writing had become such a habit that I missed it! He told me about this site, so I began to write to another person.

Like you Bex.. the second person I wrote to, it was because his mom got in contact with me. I wrote him a letter, and had no response... his mom said he had never received it and asked me to write again... I was a little frustrated, but I did it all the same. I got a letter back and it appeared he had got both of the letters but just couldn't be bothered replying to the first one!
A little strange since his mother gave me a long life story and then said how much he was in need of friends and PPs! The whole incident left a bad taste with me, and due to the contents of his first letter, I feel like his mother lied about a lot of other things also. I didn't write after that.

I still write to the first person I found from this site, although rarely now, which is a shame, but he has many legal and person issues going on.

This may sound silly but I think my PP found me.
It may be kind of a long story but it is just one of
those things.
We write to each other about twice a month and
I always try and be a positive person.
Even though like alot of us we kind of feel sad.
But tomorrow is another day.

Like Pennylane I had a pen pal when I was in grade school. I started in May 1984 when I got sober through AA and it was my way to give back to the gay community that helped me get away from drugs & alcohol. When I first got online last year in september 07, I browsed(?) looking for inmate pen friend agencies as I have gone through most print the list folks. WAP is the only one of four that seemed what I needed as the search took me to gay people.

I found out about WAP in a newspaper article and thought it would be something i could commit time to,after stalking the postman for weeks and bugging people on here for how long mail takes i got a reply ! We wrote for about three months but then i got a request for funds from her friend through jpay, i couldn't at the time because i had to pay for repairs to my car, never heard from her again !! Put me off a bit but am plucking up the courage to try again !