A secret can be a funny thing. It can bring people together, those knowing the unknown bonded by silent knowledge. Secrets, unfortunately, can tear people apart without them even knowing it. Hiding something inside your mind — something that bothers you — can be a bigger stressor than the secret itself. If you never share your thoughts, how can you know if anyone else feels the same? In 2004, the world found the outlet they needed to get the ever oppressing, eternally unforgettable, completely and totally unforgiving elephants off of their backs through one seemingly difficult, but very simple solution — the act of opening up and allowing everyone to know your secret. Frank Warren is the founder of PostSecret, a famous community mail art project where anyone, around the world can participate simply by decorating four inch by six inch post cards with photos or drawings — but most importantly, they reveal a secret that has never been shared before. In an online blog interview in 2007, Warren said, "When I started PostSecret, my motive was to create a ‘place' where people could feel free to share their private hopes, desires and fears. A place where the secrets they could not tell their friends and family would be treated with dignity in a non-judgmental way." Warren later stated, "In hindsight, I think the reason I began PostSecret was because at a level below my own awareness, I was struggling to reconcile with a childhood secret. And like others I have heard from, I was able to find greater self-understanding and self-acceptance through a stranger's secret." Only three years after the commencement of the tentative art project, Warren received more than 150,000 secrets by mail and received over 100,000,000 hits to the online PostSecret website he updates every Sunday with 20 post cards. . The topics PostSecret features are various, sometimes the confessor revealing parts of him or herself to the world or the confessor saying something that for some reason he or she can't find the courage to say to the right person. One post card says "I'm 16 years old and my biggest fear is that in a few months my father and I will be living on the streets. With this economy, I can't even find a job to help pay for the house or food. I see the fear in his eyes every day. And now I'm scared." Another says, "I want my face to be infallibly carved with laugh lines when I'm old and gray, to reveal the happiness I've lived to know. At 17, this is my life's greatest drive. And I hope it never changes." At first, what might sound like an experience that could make you feel fearful and vulnerable has proven to be life-changing for people around the world. Confessing oneself has caused those who participate in PostSecret to be able to accept themselves and surprisingly find that the people he or she was afraid of ever discovering the secret to accept it and the person wholeheartedly. Even if you don't participate, you can still feel the power of letting go and finding others you might find a connection to through their words. An anonymous participant of PostSecret said, "The things that make us feel so abnormal are actually the things that make us all the same." Warren commented, "We all carry a secret that would break your heart if you just knew what it was. And if we could remember that, there might be more understanding and peace in the world." Today, there are over 500,000,000 hits on the PostSecret website, over 300,000 followers on the PostSecret Twitter, over 200,000 likes on the PostSecret Facebook page and way too many post cards to count that have been mailed over the years to the Frank Warren's PostSecret address. "People are drawn to this because it's something powerful and raw and real that speaks to them … I try to keep it ideologically neutral and juxtapose the cards in a way that's balanced and non-judgmental," said Warren in a 2006 USA Today interview. If interested in taking your secret to the campus level, Longwood is participating in a campus-wide PostSecret activity hosted by the Resident Assistants of Arc and Stubbs, dubbed "Longwood Secrets." Secrets may be submitted through the On-Campus Post Office from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Friday, Feb. 24. All secrets will be displayed in the Lankford Student Union Ballroom on Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
*** This editorial is an opinion stated by the writer and does not represent the views of The Rotunda or
