Don't worry, you're not the only one

A while ago I blogged about Post Secret, but in retrospect, I do not think I did it justice. (if your interested you can click here to read) There was a Post Secret event at the U of U yesterday and it was basically a little bit life changing. I would recommend looking it up via facebook and seeing if it is coming your way.

As my last post secret post was a bit of a fail, I am going to attempt to explain it again.

About five years ago a man name Frank had an inspiring idea for an art exhibit. He printed off hundreds of blank postcards, with his address and set of instructions on one side. He went around passing them out asking people to write down a secret about anything, as long as they had never told anyone before. He then asked them to put a stamp on it and send it back to him.

He thought that after his exhibit was over the project was finished as well.

...

But the secrets kept coming.


So many secrets that he decided to make a blog where he could post them and people all around the world could see them.

Although this project had started as a piece of art, he began to realize that it had become so much more. One woman sent him an email describing how she had spent so long preparing her postcard. She had made it into a beautiful piece of art, turned her secret into a poem. When she was finished, as she looked down at her post card, she realized that she did not feel better, as though her burden had been lifted. Instead she was horrified. Horrified that she was carrying this with her. She did not send it off to Frank. She ripped it up and promised herself that she would no longer carry this secret.

Another girl was ready to send in her secret, but she was so sure that she was the only one who carried it - she was afraid someone would see her handwriting and associate her secret with her.

So she asked a woman on the bus to write it down for her. But instead, the woman started crying and said "me too".

Yesterday Frank said that the real magic behind the secrets is that they don't actually separate people. Everyone has something deep down that they are carrying, and they are thinking that they are the only ones. But in reality, if we could open up and share our secrets with others, we would see that they don't actually separate us at all, but that they bring us together and give us hope.


Frank has now he has published five books full of these secrets.

And the money? What does he do with the money? It goes to 1-800-SUICIDE. And so many secrets, and so many emails, say how this whole organization helped stop them from taking their own life, or helped them stop someone else.

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