
Eight-year-old Nyima Mitchell was playing with his friends near the water behind his home in Nova Scotia last fall when he made an incredible discovery.
"It was lying under a pine tree," Nyima said according to Yahoo. "I thought it was just some bottle that washed up here, but then I saw it had the paper in it," Nyima told CTV. The boy grabbed a pair of pliers to pry the top off the bottle and found a wrinkled and torn letter inside.
He unrolled the letter and saw it was dated August 12, 1995.
The letter was sent by a then-14-year-old girl from Quebec named Nellie Nadeau who wrote the letter while vacationing in the Magdalen Islands that summer. The bottle took 25 years to travel roughly 60 miles through the Gulf of St. Lawrence before it was found by Nyima.
"Dear friend, me and my friends have decided to write someone," the letter reads.
"I thought, 'wow, it looks like a teenager wrote this," Britta Mitchell, Nyima's mother said. So the two went online to find Nellie and they ran across a description of a 39-year-old doctor in Alaska who loved the outdoors that seemed to fit.
"The description on it, I think it was the hospital website, it said she grew up in Quebec and she was very outdoorsy, and I thought, 'well, the age is right," Britta recalled.
Naima mailed her a hand-written letter that reads:
Hello Nellie,
I found a message in a bottle in Chéticamp that was maybe sent by you 25 years ago from the Magdalen Islands. Please let me know.
Nyima Mitchell
After the letter was sent, they never received a response because Nellie's letter didn't make it through the post. But eventually, they were able to make contact with each other online.
"She said it gave her the chills for a few days, like it was really something," Britta said of Nellie's response. "So now we're waiting for her next letter. We still didn't get it, but I think she's working on it."
Nellie is still shocked that anyone returned her message at all, let alone someone 25 years in the future.
"You sort of hope when you launch it [that someone will get it], but afterward realize that the probability of it ever making it intact to someone is really low," she said. "If it did, that person might not even be interested in writing you back."
The Mitchells say that even though they can contact Nellie through modern technology, they prefer to correspond to their new pen pal through the mail. That way it honors Nellie's original; intentions back in the summer of '95.
The newfound friends hope to see each other sometime soon.
"I think we both want to keep it that way," Britta said. "And she said she actually wants to come the next time she is in Eastern Canada and meet us, so that's super exciting."
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just had the sweetest reunion with her ... ›
- See what researchers found when they tested a bottle of Fiji Water ... ›
- Abandoned Dog Found Wearing a Heartbreaking Note in a Bottle on ... ›
- Boy sends balloons off with a note and connects with someone 1,800 miles away. - Upworthy ›
- Family finds message in a bottle from deceased son - Upworthy ›
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."