Boston student's 'mind blown' by reply from France to message in a bottle he sent 10 years ago
One Boston college student says he is “mind blown” after getting the surprise of a lifetime when his parents told him that someone had replied to his message in a bottle that he tossed in the ocean almost 10 years ago.
"Oh my God. I was, like: 'Are you kidding me?" Suffolk University sophomore Max Vredenburgh told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.
On Aug. 21, 2010, 10-year-old Vredenburgh wrote a letter and placed it in a bottle that was sent out to sea off Long Beach in Rockport, Massachusetts.
Nine years later, he tweeted photos of his note, along with a long overdue response: “On August 21, 2010 I threw a message in a bottle into the ocean from a beach in Rockport, MA. On Oct. 10, 2019 that letter was found on the beach in France. I am mind blown. 9 years.”
Max’s post had garnered over 134,000 retweets and more than half a million likes on Twitter as of Tuesday morning.
As well as a plea to “please write back,” his original message in a bottle includes touching details about his younger self, like his fondness for apples and outer space, as well as his favorite color.
And after most people could be forgiven for losing all hope of a response, his parents told him that a letter had arrived from a "G. Dubois," who claimed that Vredenburgh's bottle had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed 3,400 miles away in southern France, nine long years after he sent the message.
"I didn't even think it would make it there and if it did make it there, I didn't think that somebody would actually write a letter back," Vredenburgh said.
The person who responded left an address, opening up the door for Vredenburgh to write back and find out exactly who sent him a reply after all these years.
"It's the human connection and, for me, it hit me on an emotional level because I reflected on myself and my past," he said. "I think, for other people, it might be doing the same."
