There is so much exquisite nostalgia that comes with opening a time capsule. Romantic and sentimental all at once, a time capsule embodies the tender smell of an antique store filled with someone’s favorite things or the yellowing edges of a photograph, taken and saved for love. It’s a message in a bottle, tossed into a sea of daily life and forgotten until now: Washing to shore 25 years later to continue the perfect tradition.
On April 16th, the Northern Star will fill the next capsule with 2025 memorabilia for the NIU students and DeKalb residents of 2050. When they peer inside, will they understand any inside jokes we lock in the capsule or marvel at how different life was in the 2020s? Will they order a similar lunch in the HSC, study in the same corner of the library or watch the same maple trees change color in the fall? Twenty-five years from now, will whoever opens our buried treasure wonder how we felt putting this time capsule together?
I hope so. I hope the excitement they feel is just as dreamy as it is for us. For all that changes in 25 years, I hope human fascination with the past – the urge to preserve and share even the small things that once made someone happy – stays the same.
I’m Lucy Atkinson and that’s my Perspective.