cam confession #5

I am addicted to email.
I currently have 809 emails in my Yahoo! inbox. (Email 809 was received in October, 2001). I have 478 sent emails saved. Additionally, I've got over 250 emails saved in various folders I have created. And all of these numbers are after I spent the morning deleting 240 emails- a task that makes me nervous. In a way, the emails serve as a journal of my life. I can refer back to them to see what I was doing, feeling, experiencing, etc. The emails chronicle friendships, flirtations, relationships, breakups, lamenting, ranting, ephiphanies, travels, happiness, sadness, and disappointment.
More practically, I can find information that I need. Just this week a friend called and needed the addresses and phone numbers of two mutual friends. My address book wasn't up to date. So I went to my inbox. Sure enough, I found the addresses in emails that were from each of the friends.
When people argue that it was my turn to email next, I am usually able to easily determine if this is true. I can look in the inbox to see the last email I received, then look in my sent folder to find the last email I wrote. Though I don't believe in taking turns.
I agree that email should not be a substitute for real interactions with the people in my life. But email has been an additional way I've been able to communicate and build relationships. I've experienced amazing conversations through email. At times, email has been therapeutic for me. And as I begin to think about moving, email gives me peace because I know I won't lose friendships that I've developed just because I'm absent. There will always be email.