When I was 16 I wrote a letter to myself to be opened on my 21st birthday. I remember it was during an English class, I wrote about 3 pages. Each of my friends wrote a page to include in the envelope which I did not read.
That letter followed me from high school, through when I moved out of home and went interstate to go to uni, and back to my home state and into my first job. It went through 6 different changes of address with me and never once did I loose it.
On my 21st birthday the first thing I did on waking up was to open that letter from me at 16 to myself at 21. It was an amazing experience, I couldn’t believe how much I had grown and changed over those 5 short years. Some of my friends had moved away, others were still good friends and there was one I had never spoken to since high school. But that letter brought everything back, the joy, the tears, fun times spent sitting on the grass discussing the important things in life (boys, New Kids On The Block, boys, clothes, boys).
The plan was to write myself another letter to be opened on my 31st birthday and to continue with a new letter every 10 years. But I never did get around to it, now I can’t find the letter I wrote to myself at 21. It might seem a small thing but to me it was something very special.
So today I am going to write another letter. This one won’t be to me though; I am going to write a letter to my daughter for when she turns 21. She is just 9 months old now and I’ve got a box of odds and ends I’ve been putting together, a kind of time capsule of her first year. When she turns 21 I will bring out the box.
I’m going to tell her how much her dad and I love her, how proud we are of her and that whatever she does we will always love her and be proud of her.
If you could write a “time capsule” letter who would you write it to and what would you say?
