55 pages • 1-hour read
Woke Up Like This
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Symbols & Motifs
The Time Capsule
Each graduating class at Maplewood High School fills a metal time capsule with handwritten letters to themselves at age 30. At 17, Char and J. T. find their class’s time capsule in a supply closet, waiting for the day when it will get filled with their letters. Despite Char’s incredible organization, she puts off writing her letter. She is not happy with her life because of her unachieved goals: She’s not student council president, she has no date to prom, she bombed her driving test, and her relationship with her best friend is troubled. This inhibits her ability to speak about her present to her future.
However, when Char and J. T. time travel to age 30, the very year her class opens the capsule and reads their letters, Char finds it on a shelf in an out-of-town thrift store called “Dead People’s Stuff” (197). Evidently, it has so little meaning now that no one even thought to keep it after it was unearthed. The time capsule, then, is ultimately rather meaningless, and this emphasizes how much more significant the present is than the past or even the future. Whoever Char was at 17 is, as the store’s name suggests, dead and gone, and she is someone else at 30—someone with new friends, a new job, and new opportunities for joy. That the capsule is so unvalued now shows just how irrelevant the past is to one’s present happiness. It is a symbol of The Importance of Being Present.
Char’s Lists
Throughout the text, Char makes and shares several lists: her high school bucket list, the list of things that could go wrong at prom, the list of wrongs perpetrated by J. T. against her, the brainstormed list of ways to return to 2024 from 2037, and so on. Lists give Char a sense of control, albeit illusory. She says that “making lists and schedules has become [her] version of meditation. It calms [her] nerves when things start to feel out of control” (5). Char’s lists symbolize her need for control and her desire to avoid the unknown, which scares her. They give her a sense of clarity and certainty.
After Char’s experience of being 30 and falling for J. T., however, she stops making lists. He teaches her that nothing should “stop [her] from living in the moment,” and the amount of fun and fulfillment that Char feels when she stops looking ahead convinces her that he is right (207). Char has learned that “true happiness” is found in the present rather than in trying to plan an unknowable future and checking off one item before moving to the next on the list. This is why she tells her 30-year-old self not to “let future goals get in the way of enjoying present happiness” (286). Char’s lists are a motif representing her desire for control and emphasizing The Importance of Being Present.
Food
Early on, J. T. tells Char that he makes a “mean” mac-n-cheese, and he proves it one night after a big fight. He brings her a bowl as a “peace offering,” and it leads to their reconciliation, where each of them admits to playing a role in the unnecessary argument that preceded. J. T. explains that his father always made his mom food “when she was mad at him,” and this admission prompts a moment when their “eyes lock in […] mutual understanding” (137). The food is a peace offering, and it gets them talking again, but it also shows that J. T. really cares about Char. A day or two later, J. T. again makes food for Char, and this time it’s apple slices with peanut butter. He tells her, “We need at least one nutrient today” (151), again emphasizing his desire to take care of her when he mentions that he’s sliced the apples just the way his mom does. Thus, food symbolizes love and care, something that one prepares for someone else to illustrate their concern and devotion.
The sliced apple moment is immediately followed by a food fight, something that J. T. says he’s “always” wanted to have, but his mom would “slay [him] if [he] ever got food on her furniture” (152). This prompts Char to throw a piece of apple at him. They proceed to grab all the condiments from their fridge and hose each other down with mustard, ketchup, and even whipped cream. Char reflects, thinking that adults hate food fights because of the cleanup, and she decides that “fun never got [her] anywhere” (153). However, during the food fight, she lets out a “bloodcurdling battle cry” before dumping ketchup on J. T.’s head, and they laugh hysterically (153); the food fight—having fun—caused her to forget her problems for a few minutes. She is fully engaged in this moment, and she is having fun as well as developing emotional closeness with J. T. Though she does not yet realize that happiness is all about being in the moment, this food fight illuminates The Importance of Being Present.
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