Food & Fitness

How to make a Time Capsule

31 Days of Fitness Challenge

Just wanted to give you all an update for the first couple days of the 31 Days of Fitness Challenge! On Day One, I walked for an hour. On Day Two, I did chair dancing at the bachelorette party that I hosted for the bride.

If you care to join me at any point in this challenge, feel free to add what you’ve done in the comments section below and/or join me on Twitter, with the hashtag #31daysoffitness. See you there!

The Time Capsule

Ten years ago, the mother dear, father dear, sistertraveller, and myself put together a time capsule. We were living in The Netherlands at the time, and we each put a few items together in a big envelope. We planned on opening it on the eve of 2010. Our promise was that we would all have to be together in order to open it.

time capsule

The time capsule.

Last year, however, the father dear and the sistertraveller were in Cambodia for Christmas. This is the first time in over a year that all four of us have been together in one city! So, on December 31st, 2010, we opened our time capsule. Keep in mind that I was only 11 years old when we made the time capsule. This is some of the things we put in it:

– A letter from each of us;

writing to self

My writing is just as messy at 22 as it was when I was 11.

– Several newspapers from December 31, 1999;

globe and mail

The front page of the Globe and Mail in December, 1999.

– A play I had written;

– Props, a poster, and a brochure for the play (the sistertraveller and I had performed it for the mother and father dears);

battle

The poster for the play I wrote, "The Battle of Clovers".

– Pasta shaped like a maple leaf;

– Christmas wish lists from the sistertraveller and I;

– A tooth (this was so random. We have no idea where the tooth came from or who it belonged to. Weird);

– A series of photographs.

1999

Some of the photos of the sistertraveller and I (and one with the father dear).

The letters were all pretty boring, but the father dear at least made some good predictions of where we’d all be by 2010. His prediction was that I’d be well-started on my writing career and I’d be a journalist for the CBC. Hehe! Well, he got half of it right 🙂 The mother dear included day-to-day type of things in her letter, mentioning the streets of Den Haag, the city where we lived. I liked the memories that her letter brought back. As for the sistertraveller and I, our letters were basically just a list of what we’d received for Christmas, as well as a list of our friends. I guess that’s what was important to us at the time! And you know, that’s pretty awesome: the only thing I was concerned about as an 11-year-old girl was playing and writing and reading. I had such a great, worry-free childhood.

a pile

Everything that was in the time capsule when we opened the envelope and dumped it on the table.

Another Time Capsule

The time capsule was such a nice thing to do that we’ve decided to do another one – but instead of waiting ten years, which is a long time, we’re going to open it in five years. We are each writing a letter each to our future selves (with predictions of where we’ll be!), and putting some photographs and a bottle of wine to share the next time we open our time capsule.

My family is very close already, but I like having the time capsule as well to make sure to bring us together once every five years – it’s amazing the direction your life can take over the course of just a few years!

sisters

The mother dear, the sistertraveller, the father dear, and myself.

Have you ever made a time capsule? Is it something you’d be interested in doing? What’s happened to you in the past ten years and where do you see yourself in the next five?

13 Comments

  1. Jody - Fit at 53

    What an amazing & creative family! My family was sort of traditional in the job sense & how we went about our days although my dad was a crazy guy.. I guess backlash to boring corporate work! 🙂

    Past 10 years have been a lot of ups & downs.. hard to feel it out.. too many family members died so hard for me… next 5 years.. being 53… surviving & staying fit! Need to make some money too! The economy downfall hit us hard….

    Love this post.. FUN!

  2. Geosomin

    That is a brilliant idea.
    The only time capsule I’ve been in on is one for my 20 year high school reunion which will be…holy crap-this year! Jeez. I’m getting old.
    I am looking forward to helping my Dad pack up his house to move this month for this very reason. I am quite sure I will find all kinds of “time capsules” up in the attic. It should be really neat!

  3. clare

    This is SOOO cool Sagan! My husband and I are moving to a new home starting this week…what a great idea to start us off! I would love to do this with my nephews too. Thanks for sharing your capsule and for the awesome idea.

  4. Pingback: Lifestyle Editing: Building a Time Capsule « Living Rhetorically in the Real World

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