In 5th grade, I invented a secret code so that no one would ever be able to read my diary.

It was made up of symbols. The J was a tree, because that’s my initial, and I like trees. The M was a smiley face because the cutest boy in school’s name started with an M. The Q was a question mark, a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor because the translation was so obvious I was certain people would never think of it.

Please note, my favorite rubber stamp that made a “ribbit” sound when pressed.

After 45 minutes of toiling away at my first coded entry, I realized encrypting my diary took so long that it made me lose my train of thought. This prevented me from enjoying the actual point of journaling.

Instead, I decided to share the code with my closest friends so it wouldn’t go to waste. I painstakingly handprinted 6 copies of the key using my fancy, special occassion fluorescent index cards and laminated them so they’d survive for all eternity.

We had so much fun with this, fearlessly passing notes in class because no one understood them. We felt crafty and untouchable.

There was even a brief love story…

This code is another of my favorite memories growing up. Oh, and if you’re feeling adventurous and up to the challenge…

Hahaha! Thanks for reading,
Malu