time capsule

taking a much-needed mental break from the crazyness of coming home to share a true gem with you. in california, my mom and i went up into the attic in search of some of my old books for jack [finally scored on goodnight moon, hooray!]. i was also secretly hoping to find additional relics of my past and indeed we found them.

among other items, i found the baseball cap signed by JTT [as mentioned here], a book about a turtle named lucy that i wrote and illustrated in 7th grade, and a set of mini foreign language dictionaries, published in 1964, which i used to read with my great-grandfather before he died in 1989.

those were cool. but something even cooler was waiting in a nearby box.

off and on over the past 10 years i've remembered making a time capsule in elementary school that i had labeled something like "do not open until 2002" because you know, when you're in elementary school in the 90s, 2002 sounds really far away. i never saw it in various room cleanings or moves to college so i figured it had been stashed in the attic. so i was hoping to find that in our treasure hunt...and boy, did i find it.

the envelope was actually marked "do not open until july 12, 2005" and it contained all sorts of fun things like a drawing of my home, photos from childhood, my 6th grade daily journal, etc. every assignment had a big A+ on it, which causes b endless annoyance. but the REAL prize was a time capsule questionnaire i'd filled out [in hot pink ink, natch]. i listed my current BFFs, all my teachers up to that point, hobbies, books, etc.



and this is when i realized i was a nerd.

the answer to the question "what was your happiest moment in school?" was "when i found out i'd gotten straight a's." question: "what was your most embarassing moment?" answer: "in 5th grade we played a brain game. i got one wrong and everyone made a big deal over it." ohhh lyndsey. your life was so hard.

but the best part is at the end, wherein i wrote a letter to myself. i literally cannot read this without laughing so hard i cry. here it is, in it's entirety for your viewing pleasure:

Dear Lyndsey, Well, you made it. You're finally 21 and you've opened your time capsule that you've been dying to open. You are probably a famous actress or writer. Maybe you're married.

Lynds, look at yourself. Look back on your life. You are (hopefully) pretty, and have lived your life well. No drugs, right? Who are your friends? Have you changed since you were 12?

In case you've forgotten, here is a little information about yourself: favorite animal: dolphin, favorite color: purple, favorite number: 7, favorite names: savannah, elizabeth, summer, autumn, sky .

I hope you've had a great life. Enjoy it, and know that your 12 year old body approves. Love, yourself at 12

ohhhhhh words cannot adequately express my reaction to this, so i'll just leave it up to you to ponder my hippie name fetish, my fear of drugs and the fact that i wasn't sure i'd be any different from age 12 to age 21.

as i was rolling on the floor laughing about this, my ever-supportive mother pointed out that i was actually a really cute kid and that i wasn't as nerdy as i now think. thanks, mom. but i'm really glad i've come a long way in 14 years. i bet my "12 year old body" would approve, whatever that means, even if i'm not as (hopefully) pretty as i'd been hoping. guess this explains why that career in acting never took off :)