The American Philatelist May 2018

The Class of 2012 and alumni Fellows at the 2012 APS StampShow in Milwaukee.
When I was introduced to the YPLF at the Richmond
show, I had been collecting stamps for a little more than a
year. It began when I broke my wrist the summer before, limiting
my normal summer activities. Instead of skateboarding
or going to the beach, I dove into my great-grandfather’s
stamp collection and was immediately hooked. With the help
of my mom, also a longtime stamp collector, I joined my local
stamp club in Williamsburg, Virginia. Stamp collecting
became a huge part of my life. When I asked my girlfriend
in high school to our senior prom it was with a poster with
“PROM?” in big letters spelled out with a hundred different
stamps. The YPLF was a natural fit and I immediately submitted
an application.
The following year, I began the Fellowship at the 2011
APS Summer Show in Columbus, Ohio. My class was the
third class of Fellows and there were five of us, the largest
class up to that point. I chose the author track, in hopes I
would be able to write for a philatelic publication. That year I
also began my freshman year at college. Being a college freshman
and keeping up with the Fellowship was difficult at first.
College life was totally new to me and school was tough. But
having a philatelic mentor constantly reaching out, as well as
the four other Fellows and Fellowship alumni kept me engaged
in the hobby. Our class visited the APS headquarters,
had a chance to visit the National Postal Museum and attended
the APS winter show in Atlanta, Georgia. The highlight of
the Fellowship year for me was the opportunity to intern at
the National Postal Museum the summer of 2012. This was
the capstone of my Fellowship year and at the 2012 Summer
Show in Sacramento, California,
I gave a presentation
on my experience. My class
graduated and another class
began.
I joined the Fellowship
because of my love for philately,
but stayed because of
the friendships I’ve made.
The YPLF is built on these
connections and owes most of its success to the bonds that
develop through a shared love of philately. In the year following
my Fellowship, I skipped class for two days to drive with
two other YPLF alumni, Andrew Shaw and Tim Hodge, from
Virginia through a snowstorm to the APS show in Louisville,
Kentucky. On the long car ride back, we could hardly move
because of a very large poster I had bought that barely fit in
the car. That summer we took another road trip from Virginia
to the APS show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Again, on
the way back our luggage had doubled from all the stamps
and covers we had found. A year and a half later, Andrew and
I both attended Tim’s wedding in Virginia. This friendship,
as well as numerous others, would never have been possible
without the YPLF.
However, the friendships that have stemmed from the
YPLF are not only among Fellows. Fellows have made connections
that span generations of philatelists and stretch
around the world. Personally, the opportunity to meet experts
in my field of interest and learning from them has been
one of the most rewarding parts of the hobby. At its core, the
YPLF is built on mentorship, from one generation of philatelists
to the next.
At my first stamp show as a Fellow, Alex Haimann introduced
my YPLF class at the APS membership meeting
and charged the entire room of collectors to stop us if they
saw us on the show floor to introduce themselves. This happened
well over a dozen times to me at the show. The conversations
and help from collectors reaching out to myself
and other Fellows, and taking the time to explain different
aspects of philately and history,
were paramount in my
Learn more about the YPLF
and listen to Alex’s 2008 Tiffany
Dinner speech in the YPLF
section of the APS website at
www.stamps.org/YPLF.
growth as a young collector.
The welcoming attitude of so
many dealers, APS members
and collectors at countless
stamp shows have contributed
greatly to the continued
interest of young Fellows in
the organized hobby.
MAY 2018 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 457