Kat and I wrote the message in a bottle on July 27, 2066, while on vacation with friends on the beach at night. We were all just 18. At the time, we thought it was a great idea (luckily!) to write the message bilingually and included my address and ICQ number—important in the 2000s—in case anyone wanted to reply. We even crumpled the message in a bottle and burned the sides. We had fun like little kids. We put the message in an empty Malibu bottle and the next day—following the motto "Now we're going for it"—we threw it into the sea from the ferry heading towards the mainland.
Then nothing happened at first. We didn't really expect anything.
More than a year and a half later, in March 2008, the letter, with my message in a bottle inside as proof, arrived at my parents' house. The letter came from Boston, USA, about 5,500 km away from where we threw the bottle into the sea. I immediately called Kate. We couldn't believe it and were overjoyed, and immediately missed a reply. Unfortunately, no letter came back. I like to imagine the bottle's journey on its way across the sea. I've often wondered if someone was playing a joke on us, finding the bottle in Holland, taking it to the USA, and mailing it back from there, but I don't care. Somehow, according to the date on the sender's letter, the bottle made the journey from Ameland to Boston in just over 500 days – over 5,500 km across the sea. Perhaps it traveled partway by boat, perhaps drifted along in a current, perhaps in someone's luggage, I'll never know. A little unbelievable, a little unfathomable, a little adventurous, even if I didn't experience it myself, but a good story – in my opinion. For me, the message in a bottle is a symbol of joie de vivre. And maybe it will make others smile, too.
