Recently, Bridgeport’s Christa Randolph opened a letter she had written to herself. The letter was dated May 26, 1999, her junior year at Bridgeport High School.  

 

“As a project of Mrs. (Heidi) Griffith’s Honors English class, we wrote letters to our future selves,” said Randolph, the former Christa Romesburg. “We signed and sealed them and they weren’t opened until recently when they were delivered back to us.”

 

Randolph said she has thoroughly enjoyed reading the letter over and over.

 

“Timing is everything,” she said. “It’s nice now to see where my priorities were when I was in high school.”

 

It’s kind of funny, Randolph said, how superficial her high school dilemmas were - like worrying about which college to attend. 

 

“The world is so much bigger than that, but when you’re that age, you think those things are the most important,” she said.

 

Yet, some parts of the letter describe her life pretty accurately. For that, she is blessed, she said.

 

“My life isn’t terribly different than I had pictured,” she said. “I talked a little in my letter about dating Ben and we ended up getting married and I had the life I dreamt about. I also talked about how my cousin Julie was my best friend – and she still is. I talked about how close I was with my brother and how I wanted to remain close with my family.”

 

Randolph is amused that she left herself some money in the letter.

 

“There was $4 or $5 in there. I said I was leaving the money because it was a lot easier then to ask Mom for money than it would be when I opened the letter,” she said. “It was sweet. I got some extra cash.”

 

Griffith implemented the project in more than one of the classes she taught at BHS. The original intention was that the students open the letters in five years. But while the letters were stashed away, Griffith forgot about them – until her husband Jon recently discovered them in their garage.

 

Randolph said she had forgotten about the letter writing project, too. But once she laid her eyes on her letter, it all came flooding back.

 

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I do remember this,’” she said. “It was such a cool project. I hope every English teacher does this.”

 

Randolph’s cousin – Julie Compton Bearden – is among former classmates who have also received their letters. She said she remembers completing the assignment, but also remembers having no idea what to put in it. When she received hers a few months ago, she realized the value of the letter she had written to her future self.

 

“It was neat to remember some of the things I was going through at that time,” she said. “One piece of advice I gave myself was to ‘be happy and spread happiness’ – so simple and innocent, but also refreshing.”

 

In her letter to her future self, Jenny Starkey Reed recorded happenings of 1997: President Bill Clinton visited Bridgeport, Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash and the Mountaineers “crushed” Marshall University. In her letter, written during her English literature class with Griffith, Reed also talked about the problems of her teenage years and how she and friends escaped them by seeing a movie, such as “Scream,” “Shag” or maybe a Tom Cruise flick. Reed – who went on to marry her high school boyfriend Steve Reed – said in her letter that her future career meant more to her than a rush to be married. But some of the letter is written to her future daughter. It says:

 

“I know you will look back and laugh at our clothing and hairstyles. I know because I did the same when I saw pictures of my mom in high school … I hope we will be close and tell each other everything – like my mom and I do.”

 

Reed said she ended the letter with “Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you might land upon the stars” – and, of course, iconic of the times - the “Peace, Love, Recycle” symbol.

 

Reed said in her letter that time flies. And now reading that letter, she realizes that more than ever.

 

Griffith said the letters – and the students who wrote them – are special to her, too. She said she got the idea from her gifted teacher at Miller Junior High School  – Mr. Charles Berry. Mr. Berry made a similar assignment when Griffith and her classmates were in eighth grade and distributed them after the class graduated from high school.

 

“He died from cancer a year after we got them,” Griffith said. “He was a wonderful teacher.”

 

The first year Griffith made the assignment, she was pregnant with her son Jacob.

 

“I was probably thinking a lot about the future,” Griffith said. “I was 25 at the time, thinking about what it was like to be 17 and things I would have told myself then.”

 

Griffith said she wanted her students to capture who they were at the time and what they hoped for their futures, as well as any happenings of the time they wanted to remember. She said initially the letters and some items which accompanied them – such as canisters of film – were to be buried in a time capsule. But instead they remained in a box, which wasn’t discovered until this past summer. In addition to the students’ letters, there was one penned by Griffith to one of the classes.

 

“I was just telling them they were very special class,” she said. “They had thrown me a baby shower and were just very thoughtful. I craved cheese when I was pregnant and they were always bringing me spray cans of cheese – just things like that. I remember thinking how grateful I was for them and when Jacob was born, I brought him in so they could see him.”

 

Griffith said she had no intentions of keeping the letters this long. Some of them are nearly 20 years old. The last time the project crossed her mind was 2007 when Brad Paisley released the single, “Letter to Me.” She said she remembers thinking that her students did that very thing.

 

Griffith has distributed the letters to several of her former students. Some addresses were recently discovered and those letters will soon be in the mail. Yet, there are some she has been unable to find. She hopes those students will read this story and send their addresses. In the meantime, they remain sealed and addressed to the students’ future selves. 

 

Those sought for include: Ashley Leinbaugh, Sandi Ward, Lindsey Joyce, LaNeal Claypool, Andrea Valenti, Heather White, Desiree Terry, Megan Walsh and Katy Wilson. Addresses and/or information can be sent to Griffith at hgriffit@k12.wv.us. 

 

Editor's Note: Pictured from top is Heidi Griffith with some of the letters, Christa Romesburg Randolph and her husband Ben; Julie Compton Bearden; and Jenny Starkey-Reed with husband Steve and daughter Kaylee.