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.
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
34 Comments
๐ ๐ <3
August 13, 2018 at 7:00 amHehehe ;D
August 14, 2018 at 2:13 amI love secret codes! I made one when I was 12, but wasn’t nearly as organised as you were! ๐
August 13, 2018 at 7:28 amHehe! It still counts. ๐ Glad you made a code, too!
August 15, 2018 at 2:44 amDo the messages come out in English or Spanish?
August 13, 2018 at 8:07 amhaha! They were usually written in English. It did have the “รฑ” character for Spanish, but English tends to be simpler. Shorter words. ๐
August 14, 2018 at 2:28 am๐
August 13, 2018 at 8:29 am๐ ๐
August 13, 2018 at 11:50 am๐
August 14, 2018 at 2:27 amI did that too! I created one with my own alphabet, and then I also used the Norwegian runes (from the Futhark). I wonder if I still have any of those notes. It would be fun to see.
Thank you for the challenge ๐
August 13, 2018 at 12:02 pmI am sure that if I knew what runes were at that age, I would have tried to make a language with them! ๐ It’s so cool you did this as a kid, too!!!
August 14, 2018 at 2:27 amโโงโค – ๐H+ร<Hโ – โฆโงแเณฉโงโ – แ|โฎโงโฆ – Hเณฉโง – โงรโ – โ| – โฎโงแ๐โโโงเณฉ ๐
August 13, 2018 at 1:47 pmThis is amazing I can’t believe you were able to do the converter so quickly! Sardai PhD!
August 14, 2018 at 2:25 amThis reminds me of the dancing men (Sherlock Holmes story). I guess most kids develop secret languages or codes sometimes. ๐
August 13, 2018 at 3:00 pmI just googled this story! I want to read it!
August 14, 2018 at 2:25 amThat was fun! ๐
Now we need a wonderlukah font that does it automagically…
August 13, 2018 at 3:29 pmThis is happening. I’ll be sharing a font soon. hahahaha! And Sardai actually made a converter! Check this out: https://sardai.com/malucode
August 14, 2018 at 2:16 amTwitch chat is about to get very very exciting!!
August 14, 2018 at 2:33 amโปโโฎโงโงโฎ – โบH+รโโโฎ ๐
August 14, 2018 at 6:38 amโโ|เณฉ – แ+Hโโฆ – โงโฑโงเณฉโค๐ฑโโงเณฉโง
August 14, 2018 at 7:21 amWhen I was around 12 I used dwarven runes from JRRT’s Hobbit ๐
August 13, 2018 at 10:20 pmOoooh, I bet this was awesome! More epic-looking than my trees and smiley faces. hahaha!
August 14, 2018 at 2:15 amYour cipher is a lot more creative than anything i made ๐
August 14, 2018 at 1:15 amand i see your love for office supplies sprouted early <3
Yep, the office supply love was born with me. hahaha! ๐
August 14, 2018 at 2:14 amA shame I haven’t got the capability to write this in code! What an amazing thing you have done! We now have a secret code we could use to make super secret, Reverb Empire – only schemes and machinations no one else will ever be able to comprehend! I love how this blog has become the new “Historias de la tรฌa Malukah” , now that the podcast is gone! ๐
August 14, 2018 at 10:05 amYou were much more creative in 5th grade than I ever was/am/will. Did a teacher ever caught one of those messages and made you decrypt it? ๐ Also, ๐
August 14, 2018 at 2:14 pmHaha! I’m sure you were/are creative, too. I don’t think we were ever caught… I don’t remember a time when we had to translate or reveal the code. ๐
August 15, 2018 at 2:46 am๐ฑHโปโ – ๐ฑโง – แHโ – โ|โฆโ – แ|๐๐โงโโโฆ – โโงเณฉโง – โโงโฑโงเณฉ – <โโง๐ฑ – โโHโ Don't know how many can read this, hopefully not to many so no-one sees my derp ๐ Great to see I wasn't the only one obsessed with secret codes and stuff. Did you ever want to become a spy Malu? Or do any other spy type things? With an old friend we used to have great fun trying to be super sneaky and spy on our parents, at the time we didn't realise they were well aware and were staging everything lol. Anyways, great read as always ๐
August 14, 2018 at 5:20 pmHahaha! I was able to read part of this. There are some squares there that I think may have been other letters? hehe! Mr. Pig, I was obsessed with Inspector Gadget and spy stuff. There was a movie I watched as a kid called “Mini Spies” that was about a group of kids who as a group broke into a facility to rescue dogs. They had all sorts of gadgets. I loooved that. hahaha! ๐ And it was sweet of your parents to play along. hahaha! ๐
August 15, 2018 at 2:42 amI did something similar a bit, however nowhere as sophisticated (e.g. laminated code cards) or as “widespread”. I think I only did a few things for myself and than gave up on it as it wasn’t very useful just for me. ๐
August 14, 2018 at 7:33 pmGlad you got to live through this, too, even if in a more personal scale. hehe! I’ve yet to find another kid who was so passionate about laminators and index cards as I was/am. hahahaha! ๐ Thanks for reading TheAlb.
August 15, 2018 at 2:44 amThis code is much fun. Now I can almost read it fluently ๐
August 18, 2018 at 5:47 pmLove the secret code, was fun deciphering the message. A bit practice and I could get used to this new written code!
August 20, 2018 at 3:00 pm๐
Haha! It’s awesome you had fun with this! Thank you so much for reading, Adrian!
September 9, 2018 at 4:59 pm