5 Amazing Notes and Letters That Went Viral

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Written and email communication used to be an elegant, private function, but with advent of trending, going viral and other phrases that made no sense 15 years ago, stuff does tend to get out from time to time. Every now and again someone writes a letter of resignation, complaint or whatever else that’s a little different.

It could be uplifting, critical or just plain angry, the main guiding unification is that they all blew up online. They provide intriguing little glimpses into the internal politics of peoples’ lives, for better or for worse. Here are 5 of the most memorable.

Jerry Conti’s Resignation Letter

Gerald ‘Jerry’ Conti spent 40 years of his life as a history teacher, ultimately ending up working in Syracuse at the end of his career. At the time of his resignation in 2013 he was 62, 3 years younger than the standard retirement age, but he wanted out. He wanted out because, as his letter makes abundantly clear, he was not happy.

In the lengthy email, Conti aggressively rips apart the current US teaching system, citing ‘a pervasive atmosphere of distrust’, a ‘one-size-fits-all mentality’ with students and ‘the tyranny of APPR’. It’s not a cheerful read and when it found its way online it caused one hell of a stir, sparking debates about the US education system nationwide and beyond.

A Dairy Queen Ex-Employee Thanks Her Boss

dailymail.co.uk

On a cheerier note, we have this. Usually when people achieve their goals they thank their parents, friends, loved ones, even their pets, but it’s not often you somebody thanking their boss at an old waitressing job. After becoming a doctor, Nahiba Islam decided to send a letter back to Yvonne Lavasidis, her old boss at Dairy Queen.

The letter thanks Lavasidis for being supportive of her goals and generally making her time there enjoyable and memorable. Supposedly she was allowed to study for medical admissions tests on slow work days and Lavasidis even cooked halal chicken for her at a barbecue. It’s a lovely gesture which could have easily passed through unnoticed by all but the people involved, but instead Lavasidis’s husband shared it on social media, garnering a massive response and even warranted an ABC interview with Lavasidis, who said the letter had moved her to tears.

The Pizza Hut Sick Note

thedrum.com

By far the most recent entry on this list, this letter is once again in more scathing territory. It’s a sick note written on behalf of Canadian teenager Kirby Reding by his doctor. He had called in sick, complaining of a cold, only to be asked to provide a sick note.

Rather than throwing out the standard, mass-printed note that all doctors presumably have on hand for such things, the anonymous physician sent a note that basically tore apart the entire idea of sick notes and berated Pizza Hut for even asking. It’s a point well-made, and clearly a large contingent of Reddit thought the same thing.

The School Test Results

theguardian.com

There was always an interesting atmosphere in my house as a kid when test results came through the door. It could get pretty tense, depending on how heavily my future might have been affected by them. The letters themselves though were all more or less the same, just a cold collection of numbers and codes. Head teacher Rachel Tomlinson of Barrowford Primary School in Lancashire decided to give hers a more personal touch.

In the note, Tomlinson reminds the students that ‘The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you – the way your teachers do, the way I hope to’. She goes on to praise their talents and personalities and encourage them to recognise their own worth beyond test results. The Twitter reaction was massive, with some suggesting that Tomlinson deserved Michael Gove’s old job as minister for education.

The Ryanair Complaint

dailymail.co.uk

Finally, we come to this, and those of you already familiar with it probably knew it was coming. I imagine Ryanair field a lot of complaints, flying as cheaply as they allow you to certainly doesn’t garuantee comfort (or much else) but James Lockley went absolutely all out with his.

In his vitriolic (and rather well worded) letter, he explains that Ryanair staff collectively managed to bungle his travel plans after getting caught in traffic en route to the airport with his wife. It’s a long, sprawling narrative with characters bearing names like ‘Vacant’ and ‘Middle Gimp’ that venomously admonishes the quality of customer service that was on offer. Lockley later posted the whole thing on his Facebook page, resulting in thousands upon thousands of shares, many of them from people who had similarly ghastly experiences with the airline. 

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF

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