Blog > Postcrossing Connections: Carrick & Milad
Today we bring you a friendship story that went beyond borders to bring together Carrick (aka geocarrick) from the USA 🇺🇸 and Milad (aka orange_memo) from Iraq 🇮🇶! Carrick tells the story of how they first got in touch, and eventually met.
Milad contacted me the first time back in September 2010 asking for direct swap, and since I never had received postcards from such a rare country like Iraq, I was thrilled! We swapped a couple of postcards, which I received in November 2010.
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I mentioned to him that I’ll send him a postcard from Shanghai World Expo 2010 since I was going there. At the time, I enjoyed visiting the Iraqi pavilion and tasted the famous Iraqi dates over there.
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On July, 9th 2011, and much to my surprise, I received Milad’s mail address through the Postcrossing system and mailed him the “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum postcard” (US-1200218) which he received and registered on July 20th, 2011.
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Milad and I kept writing to each other through Postcrossing from time to time. We both enjoy swapping postcards, penpaling and traveling, making new friends and learning new languages and cultures.
On May 2012, Milad wrote saying that his sister and her family were moving from Baghdad to Anaheim (California). At the time I lived close to Anaheim and my postbox was there too, so he wrote to tell me the news and let me know he was going to send some postcards with his sister for me. I met his sister and her family in December of 2012, and got another set of beautiful postcards from Iraq.
We kept exchanging postcards and news from time to time, and on April 2016, Milad let me know he was going to try his shots and apply for a visit visa from the American Embassy in Baghdad. In order to do that though, he needed a sponsor letter. I decided to help him and provided him with an invitation/sponsor letter, and after a lengthy process and much anticipation, Milad was granted his visa and came to California. We were very excited to finally meet on Sep. 22nd 2016. We went to Rodrigo’s Restaurant in Anaheim-CA for a nice dinner (Milad’s first time trying Mexican food) and two days later and on Sep. 24th 2016 I took him on his first-ever visit to Disneyland resort to celebrate his birthday.
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We always tell our friends and fellow postcrossers that it’s truly a small world, and how postcards and Postcrossing can shorten distances and build friendships. It’s been almost 4 years since we first met in real life, and we’re still talking about that. We’ve had trips to Disneyland twice and to OC Fairin Orange County-California. We do hope many good days yet to come and that our friendship will keep going — we’ve been friends for 10 years so far, and counting!
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Thank you Carrick and Milad, for taking the time to tell your story! We love hearing about the friendships and connections that postcards bring to life. 😊

Tags: friendship
96 comments so far
Long live postcrossing!
to look for
and found.
So that there are for a start
Friend is one
and the enemy is one ...
A person needs little:
so that the path leads into the distance.
To live in the world
Mama.
How much she needs - she lived ..
A person needs little:
after the thunder - silence.
A blue patch of fog.
Life is one.
And death is one.
In the morning a fresh newspaper -
kinship with Humanity.
And just one planet:
Earth!
That's all.
And - the interstellar road
yes the dream of speeds.
This is, in essence, a little.
This, in general, is a trifle.
Small reward.
Low pedestal.
A man needs little.
If only someone is at home
waited.
i received a card from Carrick two years ago, US 5616355, so happy with it, one of my theme collection (Y)
Carrick and Milad inspire an Idea for a January 2021 prompt: Words to spread peace and caring around the world.
I was lucky enough to receive an excellent postcard from Carrick recently. I hope he and Milad continue their friendship for life!
As this rough year comes to a close, how wonderful it's been to have Postcrossing at our disposal to remind us on a regular basis just how much we have in common with the people with whom we share life on this planet. And perhaps more importantly, Postcrossers are not just unthreatened by each others' differences, but genuinely curious about them.
Last but not least I'd like to thank Ana for having the time to share our story in the blog, Sherry ( Cherrytree687 ) for her help as she reached out to Postcrossing suggesting to share our story and to my buddy (Carrick) for 10 years and counting of wonderful support/comradery.
It’s really a moving friendship!
I also have a friend from Postcrossing, she's Dutch.
We've met three times, he's been home twice, and I've been in his once.
Fantastic!
We continue our friendship and our postcards!
A little bit of sweetness for the heart in this so troubled world.
A smile and sharing will always be stronger.
Thank you for sharing this kind of experience with us. It makes my day more beautiful.
Regards from Brasil, HarryBrasil
Perfect for the Holidays and our times.
Thanks for sharing.
It is a small world after all.😊🎉🌎
Thank you for sharing.
I wish Milad and Carrick a long and lively friendship with many cool meetings.
I loved this blog post about friendship and the enduring bond forged thanks to Postcrossing!
I have enjoyed a snail mail penpalling contact with Aleks from Belarus for almost three years now - and not about to end...
And about a year ago a very special contact to Fatou in Gambia started just by favouriting one of her sent cards. We were about to meet in March 2020 - but everyone can imagine why our trip there was cancelled... :-( We chat every day, it turned out that her mum (who passed away several years ago) was of my age and so she calls me "aunty" - heart warming! We really hope a vaccine against that crazy virus will enable us to meet soon!
Thank you for sharing!
A warm story in such a cold day.
-5℃ in Shanghai ...
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