By: Beza Kifle
Social media, like Snapchat or Instagram, allows us to let our friends know what is going on in our lives. But not tenth-grader Coi Kilcrease. She uses an email list of all of her friends to let them know what she is feeling or thinking about at any given moment; she calls it her “internal monologue.” She spontaneously started writing them in February of last year, and it all started because of her senior crush!
Last year, Coi had a crush on Brennan Lumus ‘22. The Newspaper had just sent out its issue of our Valentine’s Day Articles (coming soon!) and one of the articles, written by reporter Alexis Dalton, was about Senior Crushes. For our Valentine’s Day Survey last year, Coi got a lot of her friends to vote for Brennan, and he ended up winning. Coi emailed all of her friends the results and the article. She told me that everyone just started emailing and making fun of Brennan for winning. Coi said that the conversation was going well, and she noticed that she “can just email people and they’ll just all want to talk.”
Coi decided for her New Year’s Resolution last year that she would continue her great idea of sending out her emails. It started out with just her close circle of friends, but now, there are people that she just says hi to in the hallway. “I have had a lot of people ask me to be added to the list after they heard about it from friends,” she said. She has a lot of people, around 80, on her list and she said that “it’s a great way to connect with other people by bonding over a topic of conversation.”
When she sees or thinks of something “email worthy” she writes a draft of it and schedules it for 8:00 a.m. She also sends “mundane” things to get a conversation started. “They’re just going to have to look at it,” she told me. “And that might make them want to respond.”
Her emails are just her detailing different things that come into her head. Sometimes, she sends out emails with school-related questions, such as what classes she should take next year and what she needs to do for college. Some of them are funny thoughts that come into her head that she wants to share to start a conversation.
While a lot of her emails are funny, she also has gotten into serious topics too. One time, she sent a lighthearted email about National Women’s Day so that people would be comfortable talking about a serious topic. “I sent out a light, joking email starting like ‘hey everyone it’s women’s day!’ and it ended up getting people to donate to a charity,” she told me.
No matter what kind of email she sends, she gets a bunch of responses. For the funnier emails, she said, “I’ll see people arguing or bickering in the emails so it’s fun to see.” Everyone replies to each other based on who said the most “trifling” thing.
But why is this not on an actual social media app? Coi told me that she felt like email was more accessible, especially since she doesn’t have the phone numbers of some of the people on her email list. She also felt like if she tried to move it to another platform like Instagram, it wouldn’t have that same vibe. “I mean we’re at school, just trying to mess with each other a little bit,” she said.
Right now, Coi has had a little drought for email ideas. “I haven’t had the time to send anything new,” she told me. “I’ve also been trying to brainstorm things to talk about.” Coi has said that she’ll be sending a new email out soon, so be on the lookout!
