Folding Futures Maria Scanlan

In fourth grade, I learned how to fold “fortune tellers”-- square, pointy origami creations. My class crowded together as one of our peers patiently explained the process, and we followed attentively, eagerly grasping our pieces of hastily torn out paper, and determinedly folded, creased, and fitted them until we reached the desired shape.

To make our newly created figures tell our fortunes, we were instructed to write colors on the outside, square side of the flaps, and numbers on the inverse, triangle side. Beneath the numbers, we lifted the flaps and giggling, hurriedly scribbled what our futures would hold. "You will be a rockstar!" "You will have 14 kids!"

After that lesson, I became obsessed, folding teller after teller from whatever material I had on hand-- worksheets, newspapers, anything. With my equally captivated classmates, we shrieked in laughter over someone’s future job and adopted grave expressions once realizing that someone would one day have a broken leg.

Eventually, the forecasting sessions faded away. There was no longer any time to fold tellers in class, and after school, there was practice, homework, and meetings. Folding fortune tellers seemed childish and a waste of time, and soon, we had forgotten the...