Well, since letters are your only option, I'd say there's your answer. But you're in luck: letters are wonderful things.

I think we've all forgotten the power of letters because no one sends them anymore. When was the last time you got a handwritten letter? I can't remember the last one I got, and I sure do miss them. Remember how exciting it was to go to the mailbox and see a letter addressed to you? And in the actual handwriting of the person who sent it? It was like a part of them was right there on the envelope, and it was meant for you and no one else.

Unlike a phone call or an e-mail, a letter is a real thing, not just an electronic facsimile of thoughts and emotions. You can hold it in your hand, smell the ink on the page, feel the grooves and marks the writer put to page. You can read emotion in the weight of her hand, hear laughter or gravitas in the lilt of her words. A letter has both text and subtext--when you write in your own hand, a mood is nearly impossible to disguise or fake. That's the real beauty of letters: they are honest.

A letter has personality--words underlined for emphasis, others scratched out and replaced with better ones, extra thoughts or one last story jammed into the margins and written sideways down the page--and a letter has permanence. You can read it, put it in your pocket, take it out later and read it again, and again after that, a thousand times until it's falling apart, because it's yours and even though you have it memorized by now, you still like seeing those words on the page. Conversations can grow hazy in the memory--did she say I was special or did she say different?--but when put on paper, words are a gift that never lose their ability to comfort, affirm, amuse, exhort.

The thing I love about letters is that they give you snapshots of people or times long gone--a nice thing to have as you grow older and memory fades. I recently found a pack of letters I'd saved from Richard, my best friend in high school, who died in 1991. I'd forgotten how odd and funny and thoughtful he was until I started reading his scribbled handwriting. I was surprised--reading his letters didn't make me sad that he was gone, but happy that I'd known him at all. I also have old letters from my mom and grandmother; I'm not quite ready to read those yet, but when I am, their words will be waiting for me.

Letters allow shy people to say things they might not be able to say to your face: I love you. I miss you. I was wrong. I'm sorry. I can't wait to get my hands on you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. Letters show us the person behind the curtain, and that's when love begins--when someone reveals her soul.

Writing letters to your boyfriend overseas won't keep your relationship strong; they will make it stronger. Write him as much as you can. Tell him how you feel. Be honest and open and fearless, and he'll learn more about you from your letters than he might if you were together. You'll learn things about yourself, too.

If he loves you, he will treasure your words, and if he doesn't, he might fall in love with you because of them. No matter what happens to your relationship in the future, your letters will always be a reminder to him that he was loved, and by someone strong and caring enough to put her feelings into written word.