The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

Thank you, but no thank you

Freshman Emily Sedlak usually writes thank you letters for gifts she receives, as opposed to writing an email or a text. She started writing thank you letters because her parents encouraged her to do so when she was younger. Photo by Gabe Weininger
Freshman Emily Sedlak usually writes thank you letters for gifts she receives, as opposed to writing an email or a text. She started writing thank you letters because her parents encouraged her to do so when she was younger. Photo by Gabe Weininger

Science teacher Bob Froehlich has a secret stash in his desk. It is not a stash of candy or money, but of thank you letters.

“I get notes from students a lot, thanking me for helping them or doing something like that, and it’s really nice when that happens,” said Froehlich. “I’ve got a folder in my desk that’s just called ‘Nice Things,’ and I keep all that stuff and so sometimes when the day isn’t going as well as it should, maybe I want to dip into that and see that [I] really don’t suck.”

Froehlich said while the acknowledgement itself is enough, a handwritten thank you note shows a little more appreciation because of the effort it takes to send through the mail.

Freshman Emily Sedlak agrees that a written thank you letter means more than other ways to say “thank you.”

“Recently, my eighth grade social studies teacher sent me a letter thanking me for my end of the year gift and it was really nice,” Sedlak said.

However, Sedlak said over time she has seen a decline in the number of thank you letters she has received.

“…After a birthday party, someone would have a text with everyone and say ‘Thanks for the gifts! I loved them all,’” Sedlak said.

She said individual thank you cards were not sent.

Junior Maria Roman thinks thank you texts do not mean as much as letters. She has also witnessed a decline in thank you letters, especially last year when she attended sweet sixteen birthday parties.

Roman said she was disappointed when a friend did not send a thank you letter for a gift Roman gave her.

Freshman Nina Fridman said she stopped writing thank you letters after she was 10 or 11 years old. Up until then, she said her parents made her send them, but she now mostly thanks friends and relatives by calling.

“They’ll guide me towards ‘Here’s the phone, you should call your family members,’ or ‘Here’s a pen, you can write if you want,’ but I’ll usually just call,” Fridman said.

Fridman said writing a thank you letter is more time consuming than calling, and thinks a call to say thanks means just as much, as long as the same message is conveyed.

Roman disagrees. She thinks thank you letters are the best form of expressing gratitude.

“It’s a nice thing to do, and I know most people don’t do it, but I think I will [continue sending thank you letters],” said Roman. “I’ve heard from family and adults before that get [my letters]. They say, ‘Oh thank you, that was such a nice card.’”