If you think sending a message in a bottle across the Pacific Ocean is impossible, think again. Back in 2010, Brittanie Penrose and Aaron Laneri wrote messages, put them in an empty wine bottle, and threw it into the water from Oceanside Pier, California. Now, three years later, it has been found in Ipan, Guam by Javier Sanchez, a fourteen-year old high-school student, who was cleaning up a beach with his classmates during the International Coastal Cleanup. The bottle made a journey of approximately 6,200 miles.

“I totally forgot all about it,” stated Penrose. Of course both of them did not expect, but were thrilled to hear, that their notes were discovered. Laneri’s idea for a special date was definitely well worth it. “I just thought it would be a really great date idea. I gave her some paper and I said ‘Write whatever you want.'” Little did they know that their notes would eventually be in the hands of a group of high-school students thousands of miles away.

During the time when they wrote the notes, Penrose was suffering from brain cancer, but fortunately has recovered. She described her struggle with cancer and included her Facebook information and email address in the note, so that she could be contacted if it was ever to be found. The teacher who organized the clean-up has a video online, which recites Penrose’s note in full. Laneri’s note, on the other hand, contained some of his song lyrics that referred to how people treat one another. “When intelligence is ignorant and empathy is absent, death and hate are present when joy and love are abstract,” it stated.

He also wrote some advice in his note, telling its finder to reach out and grab out of life everything they have ever wanted.

Image via Wikimedia Commons