10-Year Time Capsules

Here's a neat little project our family. We have created time capsules that we will seal up for about 10 years (we plan to open them around December of 2023). In each "capsule" (we used photograph boxes), we put items that mean a lot to us now. It may be a small sacrifice now, but when we open the boxes in a decade, I think the joy will be that much greater.

In each box, we each wrote a list of goals or things that we want to see happen in the next 10 years. Of course, we have more short-term goals and plans. (I myself am an especially-nerdy planning addict.) It's not that these lists will be rigid, but it's fun to imagine what the future will be like.

We won't bury these boxes, especially considering that we've lived in 3 different homes in less than 10 years, and we'll be moving again this summer. We will just seal them up and store them away.

Here's a list of what it is each of our time capsules:

Hannah, Age 12

Box Contents (this is only a partial list; her box is pretty stuffed! Just like her brain.):

• Thimble from Folly Beach (she collects thimbles)
• Art sketchbook
• List of her hobbies and favorite things
• Name badge from iTEAMS summer camp
• Toy football caught at an Allendale-Fairfax football game
• Stuffed animal and toy doll
• Miscellaneous artwork

Ten-Year Goals:

• Be in college [she loves SCAD]
• Have a driver's license and car
• Visit Europe 
• Have a bird or a cat as a pet 
• Take another ballet class, and/or learn to play piano
• Have a job 
• Learn French 

Elijah, Age 10

Box Contents:  

• Spirit towel from his USC Gamecocks football game
• Autographed mini-football from an Allendale-Fairfax football game 
• Magic wand (he loves magic tricks) 
• LEGO minifigure and LEGO Nanoblock set
• Other artwork and toys

Ten-Year Goals: 

• Have a driver's license and a vehicle 
• Be in college, hopefully to study engineering or architecture 
• Have a job  
• Travel to at least 25 states in the US 
• Edit: At the end of this vacation, he's been to 11 states.
• To sight-see on one other continent besides North America

Sender, Age7

Box Contents:

• Spirit towel from his USC Gamecocks football game
• Trophy from playing baseball through Allendale County Recreation 
• LEGO minifigure, and a Batman action figure
• A pencil and stickers
• A tail he cut off from a plastic toy scorpion
• A letter he wrote to his future self 

Ten-Year Goals:  

• Get a car [no mention of driver's license, but we'll let that pass]
• Have a job
• Have a pet monkey [originally, it was to have a dog]
• Visit Texas
• Play baseball in high school  
• Go to college [a couple of years too early, but we'll let this pass, too]

Joanna and I (Ages Undisclosed)

Box Contents (we combined our capsule):

• An article about us in The Allendale Sun (written about here)
• Some other articles about camps and programs we've been involved with in Allendale 
• Some encouraging notes we've gotten over the past 3 years
• One of my hats from coaching football at Allendale-Fairfax High School  
• A business card that I've used for the past couple of years, which highlights our other blog and our Elevate Ministries brand  
• My Allendale County Schools name badge, from when I used to work part-time for the district   
• My first smart phone (which I got 2 days before I started working here)
• [that's all we have for now; we need to work on this, don't we?]

Ten-Year Goals (also combined):

• Happily married for 24 years!  
• Kids are passionately following Jesus
• Kids are successful in school, relationships, and are working  
• Adopt a child  
• Joanna to be working outside the home  
• Pay cash for our next family vehicle (like another minivan)  
• Have $300,000 saved for retirement (I think we're almost half-way there)

Would you care to join us in this project? I'm sure it will be a wonderful memory-building time for your family.


Related Links:

• Family Goals for 2013  
• Family Goals for 2012