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00:00I'm in the middle of reading your book. It is a stunning amazing story of friendship. Why did you guys decide to be pen pals and state pen pals. Caitlin I think it was really just . We were friends. We were friends through our letters and that's that really kept us together because we generally had an interest in each other's lives. MARTIN What was it like for you . I mean Caitlin's life was so radically different from yours in every single way. Yet you have this amazing generosity towards her as well in your letters. For me really it was there the life that she portrayed over here in America which is way different from where I was coming from. And it inspired me that it is more where I was. So we kept on writing back and forth building our relationship and with the ultimate goal that we would meet and that I would be able to live the abject poverty that I was growing up in and we're actually looking at pictures that you guys exchanged throughout the years. What was it like Martin when you came to the states for the first time you're going to Villanova one of the first scholarships they gave to international student and you met Caitlin. It was I remember the day I landed at Philadelphia Airport 15 August 20 2003 that day my life changed forever. I met my penpal and best friend Caitlin after writing for almost a decade and it's meant to launch ever since things have been going well for me I've managed to get to a lot of opportunities meet people that I've lived that I would have never met if I had stayed back home. So I'm very grateful for my relationship and friendship with Caitlyn who we grew up together in different parts of the world thousand and thousand miles apart. Caitlyn in putting this book together . What did you hope to get out of it. What do you want to have me get out after it. When I finished reading it I just wanted people to understand that kindness comes in small forms. If you'd just be friends with somebody and kind of someone it makes a huge difference in their life they can be hard with men not being condescending. I mean you can be kind and condescending or kind and really kind. That's a hard line to draw sometimes . If I just weren't kids growing up to know that sometimes if you just do what's right in your heart and just be interested in somebody else's life I'm just kind to them just kind of other kids and that we're all the same. What's so fascinating about your story. I remember getting a pen pal somewhere at some point maybe I wrote a letter but I just I just didn't care. And you both had such an investment in this. MARTIN What was it like when you got that first letter. I it was very exciting for me very interesting for me. You know it was the first time for me to connect to the outside world given where I was growing up so I was very curious to learn about Caitlyn what big grown she was in and you know what America was really all about given that what I knew about America was all I read in the newspapers was watching on TV so connecting to real American meant a big thing for .

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Pen-Pals Forge Life-Altering Connection

Greylock Capital Management Associate Martin Ganda and Author Caitlin Alifirenka discuss co-authoring “I Will Always Write Back” with Alix Steel on “Street Smart." (Corrects video to fix erroneous graphic.) (Source: Bloomberg)

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