Growing up in a small town in Mindanao with no postcards for sale, Leila (aka LeilaKewl) first discovered the wider world through QSL cards from faraway radio stations. These days, Postcrossing, a friendly campus post office, and an ever-growing pile of mail from surprising places make her happy and connected to the world beyond social media. We talked to her about all of this in the latest spotlight interview!
- How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?
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My earliest memory of holding a postcard in my hand was when my parents received one from a friend overseas. The random street scene of other cities or desert landscape of other countries looked so exotic to my eyes, which had only seen our tiny town in the hinterlands of Mindanao island!
In my high school days, and still living in that tiny town, I got into shortwave radio listening, and I would send SINPO reports to radio stations. In acknowledgement of my report, they would send me a QSL card – actually postcards from their location. So I got cards from Saigon, Moscow, Washington DC, Sydney, Guam, Tokyo, etc.
Later on, when I got the chance to go to other places, I would buy postcards to keep as my picture-souvenir of the scenes I had seen, because I knew that my small, rectangular 110 camera would not have enough flash power to capture the details of such bright, beautiful places.
Finally, I actually started sending postcards when I stayed overseas as an exchange student for a year, to send a quick “Hello! I’m still alive” note and to show family and friends where I had been or what I had seen.
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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One day, I saw my friend Mysnia88 reading through a bunch of postcards she received. As I have always been interested in mail and postage stamps, I got curious and took a peek over her shoulder as she read them (with permission, of course). I was amazed by the variety of countries the cards came from and the beautiful postage stamps attached.
She told me about the Postcrossing website. I checked it out, signed up and, as they say, the rest is postcard-HERstory!
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your post office or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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Although there is a mailbox outside our home, I prefer to use my workplace’s address. Since I work in the University, it has its own post office inside the campus that makes it convenient for me to drop by regularly.
Since starting Postcrossing, I have developed good relations with the small postal staff of 2–3. They actually set aside my mail and prop it up on their table for the daily exchange — when I come around to send mail, they hand me over my incoming mail. One could say that I am my own mail-folk!
- What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?
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It is difficult to pick the favorite part because I enjoy the whole process of Postcrossing. If really pressed to say the favorite part, maybe it would be seeing a slant at the end of the blue bar of travelling postcards… because it means that I can finally click the red “Send a postcard” button!
And then I can start the whole process of reading the recipient’s profile, adhering to their preferences of card theme and writing prompt, actually putting together a postcard, and mailing it.
But definitely, I look forward to reading and appreciating everyone’s notes written on my received cards, and the recipient’s thank-you note in the email.
- Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?
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Yes. As I am a fan of tennis player Andre Agassi, I have known for a long time that he has a connection to Georgia (not the one in the USA). So, when I received my one and only card from that country, I was tickled pink by it… although of course that thread of connection between the postcard and Mr. Agassi is barely there. :-)
However, I have been most surprised to receive a card (RE-4563) from a territory I did not know existed – Réunion!
As with most, I looked at the image first and thought it might be an atoll in the Pacific. Then I saw the postage stamp, which was the familiar Marianne of France and was a bit puzzled at the idea of an atoll in France. Afterwards I read the message, written in an “European-looking writing”, found the Postcrossing ID “RE” and thought it must be a mistake. But there are only 4 digits, so maybe it is legit…? RE – where is that?!
The card made me research about Réunion, its location, history, etc. Now, I want to visit Réunion!
- What’s one way that postcards have changed your life for the better?
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Postcard exchange, or Postcrossing, has made me realize how connected we all are. Even if I don’t travel to see much of the world, and my social media feed is limited to my corner of the world, the postcards show me that there is so much more out there and yet, we all have the same aspirations, and we are so alike more than we are different. It has also made me more prayerful, surprisingly.
56 comments so far
Great story, thank you!
Sure hope you will make it to Réunion one day - it is beautiful ❤️
wow Leila... it's a surprise to read news about you here (Y)
Good story
I wanna to go to Réunion too....
I would love to go to the philippines one day!
What fun to see you featured this morning, my friend! A letter is coming to you soon!
Love the part about the post office knowing you - sounds friendly.
I sent you a card in August. So cool to see where you picked it up. This blog post makes me feel even more connected through Postcrossing. Salamat po!
I’d be honored to send you a postcard, Leila.
Would you like that?
If yes, how do I go about that?
Glad you’re one of this peaceful, grand community, POSTCROSSING.
That’s an interesting story.I have heard about your island as my son has been to visit and liked it a lot. Agree with La Réunion, a destination to explore. Good luck !
Hey, Leila! So great to learn more about you here!
It's exciting to see a person you know and correspond with being featured on the Postcrossing blog! Leila is such a lovely person and wonderful for the snail mail community. Thank you for featuring my friend ❤️.
Thank you very much for this spotlight, Ana and the Postcrossing team.
And thank you, everyone, for the kind words.
So cool to read about this postcrosser—considering I recently pulled her address and sent a card!! I hope it’s delivered soon. :D
I love this story!
Good story! Thank you.
Leila, I enjoyed your Postcrossing story so much! Keep on posting ♥
Congratulations!!!!! Neat story 😊
Lovely reading this, Doc Lei! And happy to connect with you through this hobby. 🤍
Great article. I'm inspired by stories like this. I recently received my first postcards: one from Austria and the other from France. It was a great experience.
Oh, how cool! So nice to read about your Postcrossing experience!
I truly enjoyed reading your Postcrossing and postcard experiences, and your story about yourself. Wishing you many more connections throughout our beautiful mailing world.
So true dear Leila aka LeilaKewl ->
"we are so alike more than we are different!"
Keep on #Postcrossing
♥♥♥ -> x♥x♥
Yay! Congratulations, Ms. Leila, so happy to know you more here, my fellow kababayan. I was hoping to meet you when I was in the Philippines, but my plan didn't push through, maybe someday ;)
I love this story so much! Thank you for featuring a Postcrosser from the Philippines. It's my country of origin and as a Filipino-American, I love reading and learning about the Filipino culture and now, how Postcrossing has become a part of Leila's life!
Thank you for the interview! So fun and heartwarming to read!
A lovely her-story of the creative and warm-spirited Leilakewl! She has organized many Postcrossing meet-ups here and occupies 2 of the Top 10 Postcrosser slots in the Philippines. 😊
Congratulations doc leila!!!! Such a heartwarming story and indeed a beautiful person inside out! See you soon!!
Another nice interview. It's great to read over postcrossers experiences and realize exactly what Leila says over similarities against differences!
What a great interview! Leila, thank you for sharing your Postcrossing adventure with us. <3
Wonderful to read! :)
What a wonderful interview! This was so lovely to read.
The post is wonderfully written! It's great to see where you also picked up my postcard. I wish you many more beautiful moments in life!
I'm delighted to connect with another DXer who enjoys listening to international shortwave radio! It's fantastic that you also send reception reports and collect QSL cards. I currently have a collection of 3,500 QSL cards from 165 countries!
E' veramente bellissima la tua storia e Postcrossing ti fa sentire veramente connesso con il mondo.
I sent Leila a postcard in September! So wonderful to read a post on someone I've had a postcrossing connection with!
Such an interesting interview! It was great to get to know you Leila! Happy Postcrossing! :)
Leila's interview, and all the lovely comments (including correspondents from the virtual meetup where she and I "met") prove how small the world is, and how interconnected we can be, if we make the time to connect. And this geography nerd did not know where Reunion was, but I do now, so thanks Leila!!
Thank you, all, for being here and for the lovely words.
Together, let us make the world a little bit smaller.
Spread
Peace and love,
Leila
I have never heard of QSL radio postcards before. It was an interesting article in fun to learn about new things.
postcrossing is a part of my life.
because it's full of surprises.
How neat it was to read your message after receiving my card - and then to see your interview posted right after that! This was such a fun article and I learned some new things too. Wishing you the best! :D
Thank you, Leila.
I, too, love reading the thank you notes from recipients. It's often the bright spot of my day. Thank you sharing your postcrossing journey so far. Love it.
I enjoyed your interview so much! I see that you enjoy Postcrossing as much as I do. I find surprises in each postcard… either a kind sentence, cute drawing or nice signature! The written side is full of life! Thank you for sharing about your mail life...
Amazing! The second Postcrossing card I ever got was from Leila! A beautiful waterfall postcard from the Philippines… on my Filipina mom’s birthday!! Great spotlight!
So wonderful! I recognized the user name, I had mailed a card from the USA to Leila in April 24, 2025, she received it on May 27, 2025! So happy to read more about her postcard journey in the spotlight story! :)
I visited the Philippines in Jan-Feb this year and visited Davao on Mindanao island as we were visiting my daughter-in-law's family there.
I was happy to be able to send some Postcrossing postcards from Davao. Very cheap postage and the postcards all arrived!
What a nice story! And I loved the phote of your post office.
The world is big, but it becomes smaller when we share love.
All the best for you and the Postcrossing community around the world.
Nice to read your story :) Specially since I also received a beautiful card from you the other day :) All the best!
Such a lovely profile! Great to see such enthusiasm and her warm feelings for Postcrossing!
Very nice story. I wish you all the best and send my greetings from the Czech Republic.
Thank you!
The interview piece is really nice. Grew up in Manila but but never been to Mindanao. Great to see you here!
An interesting interview! I just received a postcard from you referencing the interview. Thanks for the postcard and the interesting article!
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