I had all year to think about and collect items, such as newspaper clippings or important mementos, to put in a time capsule. I had all year. Today I scrapped my time capsule together at the last minute, when it was too warm to go snowshoeing and we couldn’t think of anything better to do. But hey, that’s part of the story – right?
2017 was a pretty unique year for me; I traveled endlessly for work and play, I worked harder than any other year of my life, I suddenly became the sole caretaker of my aging father, and as of today, I bought a house. While I didn’t anticipate so many new and different experiences, I also never had the time to sit down and process them either.
First off, there any many suggestions on the inter web about how to make a time capsule: 
With so many suggestions, my stubborn inner monologue insisted that I would find a way to do it my own way. Ultimately though, there were too many decisions to make: how long until I would open it? What would I put my items in? Where would I bury my capsule? Who would come with me? Should I do it alone?
I did go as far as buying a NASA approved capsule from Amazon:
But as there are only a couple days left in 2017, and my friend, David, suggested that we find a way to get outside despite the weather – I knew that TODAY WAS THE DAY.
What exactly went IN my time capsule? Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t be fun to open it later. I did have several pictures from the year quickly printed at Walgreens, and grabbed a couple small mementos. Nothing fancy. What I can say is that my time capsule hinges around HBO’s Game of Thrones series (yes, you read that right).
My friend, Kerrie, and I are both deeply nerdy, and have spent years waxing intellectual about the books and show. For the capsule, we listed our theories of what we both believe will happen to all of the main (and some supporting) characters – we have some agreements, and some differences.
This means I have set the opening date of my capsule as 12/29/20 – three years from today. Hopefully this will give HBO time to wrap up the final season, and maybe GRRM will release Winds of Winter* to at least clear up where the show made it’s own “artistic” decisions.
Ok – so I’ve got a date – but WHERE to bury it? Once I had picked up David, we stopped at the iconic Skyline Burger for lunch, which is also adjacent to Forest Park. One of the more challenging goals of the year was to hike the 30-mile Wildwood trail of Forest Park, so it seemed only natural to bury my capsule somewhere along a place that was symbolic of my 2017 bucket list.
At lunch, I briefly wrote out a some of the good and not-so-good things that happened in 2017, and a couple hopes for the next three years.
Then we headed towards a nearby trailhead, in the middle of an incredibly windy rainstorm. David seemed unusually nervous about carrying a shovel into the woods on a stormy day but I urged him down the trail a little ways, identified a relatively memorable spot, and buried the capsule.
Should you be thinking about burying a time capsule for 2018, I recommend creating a small box or envelope RIGHT NOW to start collecting things. You can also leave them out later, but finding things at the last minute is probably not the way to go. Nonetheless, my capsule will be fun and interesting to open in three years.
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*Footnote
I realize many, many people are ruthlessly savaging GRRM about not releasing the next Song of Ice & Fire books, and I want to be clear I harbor zero bad feelings. He gave us a great ride, and by stretching it all out, we are having even more fun with fan theories. Should the books be published, great. Should they stay forever a mystery, that’s ok, too.
