Woman Opens Second-Grade 'Time Capsule' After 25 Years—in Shock at Contents

Newsweek

5 hours ago

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A mom of two was left shocked at the contents of a time capsule she buried in the second grade some 25 years ago.
Carrie Grigery, from Ashland, Missouri, decided to do something a little different on the eve of her 33rd birthday by opening the time capsule she first sealed up all those years ago in Miss Taylor's class at Terrace Elementary School in Richardson, Texas.
"I usually get the birthday blues for whatever reason, so I thought this would give me something to brighten my day and make it exciting," Grigery told Newsweek.
Despite being the one who filled the capsule all those years ago, Grigery was completely unprepared for what she found inside.
Nostalgia can be a powerful emotion. In fact, one 2014 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research concluded consumers were more likely to spend on products that evoked feelings of nostalgia.
Grigery has always had a complex relationship with the past, and opening up her time capsule after holding onto it for so long felt strangely significant to her.
"Nostalgia always brings up weird feelings to me," she said. "I'm definitely a deep feeling person so it made me feel physically sick because the moment felt so big and heavy. It was 25 years in the making, and I didn't want to mess up something that I was excited about."
Nothing could prepare her for what was inside, although that was largely down to the fact she couldn't actually remember what was inside. "I didn't remember anything at all," Grigery said. "My memory is horrible."
That led to some pretty major surprises when it came time to open it. "The biggest surprise was my drawing I made of me holding a baby. I have no recollection of ever yearning to be a mom," Grigery said.
Though she is a proud mom of an 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, Grigery's desire to have kids was one that developed with age. "I even had a fear of pregnancy, so in college, I'd always say I never wanted kids," she said.
Even so, one of the real highlights of the entire process was looking through everything with her kids. "Definitely smiled the most at my drawing and handwriting. Specifically having a second grader and seeing how much better I am at drawing and writing than he was. It was fun to pick on him about that," Grigery said. "Also, the family pictures were fun to look at with my kids because they didn't recognize their grandparents or aunts."
Grigery didn't just share the contents with her family either. In a video posted to her TikTok, @carriegrigery, she showed viewers what was inside. It proved popular with over 1.2 million views and counting.
In among the newspapers, drawings and journal entries, Grigery found something that was tinged with sadness.
"I felt sad just reading how kind the message from my second-grade teacher was and never having contact with her again since 2000," she said. "I've never been able to find her on socials. I would just love for her to know I kept the time capsule and appreciate it so much."
If one good thing were to come out of this entire experience for Grigery, she would love it to be that she finds a way to reconnect with Connie Taylor, her old teacher at Terrace Elementary. Her message would be a simple, but heartfelt one.