My grandma once told me, “to be remembered is to live forever. Remembering is breathing life into a moment once more. It is the only form of real resurrection.”

I made a time capsule in sixth grade. Half of me was hoping to preserve the essence of those I held near and of the things I love. The other half of me wanted to make one because that was the most recent trend. I was too young to truly understand how fast and drastically things change, so at the time I believed that everything in that box would follow me for the rest of my life. 

Bleeding the colors of the Dominican flag, my bracelet represented a huge part of me even though it was a very small item. It was a gift from my mom when we moved to the US, to serve as a daily reminder of where I’m from. It conveniently broke off the day before I decided to make the time capsule.

A picture of my two best friends and I dressed as our favorite athletes for halloween that still brings tears to my eyes. Those were the happiest years of my life. Friends drift apart, following their own paths. I would've never guessed that these friends would be strangers just a few years later.

I made a one page letter explaining everything in the box to whoever finds it. To this day, I can’t remember much about what I wrote in this letter, but I know that it took me days to finalize. It’s really hard to tell my whole life story in one page, so I focused more on talking about my predictions about the future. I hoped that in 500 years there would be flying cars, robots that do your chores, and rich people living on mars.

Lastly, a bunch of pennies. I figured that would give it more chances of being found by a metal detector. Also, old pennies are cool. Whoever finds it will then have cool old pennies to show off.

Life led me down unexpected roads, but the memories sealed in the capsule serve as a reminder of who I was and the people who have touched my heart. I hope that whoever finds my time capsule is able to reflect on new aspects of their lives. I hope that my grandma’s message is carried on through generations. I hope that just for a moment, when I’m no longer breathing, I can exist again.