If you had an email address between 1998 and 2008, you received this one. Make a Wish was the quintessential chain letter: breathless testimonials, a scrolling tunnel of asterisks, a wish granted by the power of forwarding, and a deadline measured in minutes. We preserve it here as a beloved museum piece. Wishing along is optional but traditional.
The Chain Letter, As Received
WAY COOL EXPERIENCES!!!!!
“I'm 14 years old, and I wished that my dad would come home from the army, because he'd been having problems with his heart and right leg. It was 2:53pm when I made the wish. At 3:07pm (14 minutes later), there was a ring of our doorbell, and there he was, luggage and all!!” - KATIE
“I'M 15 AND MY BOYFRIEND AND I HAD JUST BROKEN UP. SO I WISHED THAT WE'D GET BACK TOGETHER. IT WAS 9:28PM. AT 9:43PM THERE WAS A RING OF THE PHONE WHICH KICKED ME OFF-LINE. IT WAS MY BOYFRIEND AND NOW WE'RE TOGETHER.” - MARIA
“I'm 13, and I was crushing on this guy for so long! I wished that he'd ask me out on Monday at school, and on Monday, he did!! Now we're happily going steady!!” - LISA
Believe me... this really works!! Just scroll down to the end, but while you do... make a wish. Whatever age you are is the number of minutes it will take for your wish to come true. If you don't send this to 20 people in 20 minutes, you will have bad luck for 20 MONTHS!!!! GO!!!
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(several hundred rows of asterisks lovingly omitted -
scroll slowly and keep wishing, that part still counts)
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STOP!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your wish will now come true in your-age minutes. And if you send this to 10 MORE people beyond the original 20, something MAJOR that you've been wanting will happen in the next 10 seconds, minutes, hours or days. Probably minutes or days. GOOD LUCK!!!
A Field Guide to the Chain Letter
Every classic chain letter ran on the same three-part engine: a promise (your wish comes true), a threat (20 months of bad luck), and a quota with a deadline (20 people, 20 minutes). The formula long predates email - paper chain letters promising luck circulated through the postal system for most of the 20th century, and fact-checkers at Snopes have catalogued the genre's many mutations across paper, email and social media. Nobody's wish was ever granted by forwarding, as far as science can determine - but millions of people hovered over the send button thinking well, it can't hurt, and that little hover is the entire history of viral media in miniature.
Keep the Chain Going (Voluntarily)
Forward this page to someone nostalgic for the inbox of 2002 - no bad luck if you don't, we promise. The companion pieces in our email-forwards wing are the $250 Cookie Recipe, the wise Lessons for Life, and the combative Telemarketing Comebacks.