I’m not going to lie. I have a secret.

When I was younger, I used to spend my summers sitting in the driveway pulling apart poor defenseless caterpillars and trying to eat them.

I don’t remember why I did this. I only remember that caterpillars’ insides are green, and my mom used to get really mad at me for doing it.

No matter how silly or trivial they may seem at times, we all have secrets.

Thankfully, people all across the globe no longer have to keep their secrets locked inside thanks to one Web site, PostSecret, found at postsecret.blogspot.com.

PostSecret “is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard,” according to the Web site.

The Web site creator and secret keeper, Frank Warren, said on PostSecret that he started the project in November of 2004.

“I printed up 3,000 postcards inviting people to share a secret with me anonymously,” he said on the website. “I passed them out in public spaces like bus stops and left them behind in library books.”

People soon began sending in their secrets and PostSecret was born.

Chris Tillich-Walker, sophomore in LAS, said he first heard about PostSecret from a friend and once he looked at the site, it touched him in a deep way. He said it made him realize that people all have problems, fears and doubts that they try to hide.

“Here were these people pouring their hearts out anonymously over the Internet, confessing some of the deepest fears and regrets, some of which I’m sure had never come out to anyone,” he said. “I found that I could relate to a number of these secrets as well. It just really showed me that we’re all the same, inside and out.”

One of the secrets on the site has a picture of a swimming pool with the words, “When I was a lifeguard, we used to throw Snickers bars in the pool and say it was poop so we wouldn’t have to work.”

Another secret is a faded picture of a family and says, “Every Sunday my mother has breakfast with her new family. And every Sunday she forgets to wake me.”

Walker also said that he liked how PostSecret made him feel like it’s normal to have problems and to be afraid.

“On PostSecret, you can confess that kind of stuff without persecution,” he said, “But instead feel acceptance.”

The Web site is easy to navigate with one secret after the other along the page. Viewers can also click on each postcard for an enlarged view of the image. The secrets are updated every Sunday for a fresh look into the lives of those who participate.

So many people have been sending in their secrets that a PostSecret book was made in December 2005 with the most requested secrets from the Web site and many postcards that have never been seen before.

In the introduction to the book, Warren talks about his hope that revealing secrets by postcards will help people come to grips with their own secrets and confront them. The whole process seems to be about healing.

Sending in your own secrets is easy and Warren gives some simple guidelines.

“Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation,” he said on PostSecret. “Reveal anything – as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.”

John Powell, a Clinical Counselor at the University Counseling Center, said many students come in to see him for what he calls “developmental crisis.”

“College is for growing up and independence,” he said. “This is very stressful for people. These are normal things people go through, but they’re important enough and intense enough and often confusing enough to turn into a crisis.”

Powell highlighted the importance of students having an outlet to talk about their problems. He said as students get more and more stressed they feel like things are closing in around them from demands put on them by others or themselves.

“There’s often something pretty helpful about students just being able to put their problems into words,” he said. “To do that they create some distance from what’s going on so they can see their situation a little better.”

For some people, PostSecret can be the outlet they are looking for to release their stress and emotions.

“Like many others I have heard from, I find meaning from the solace, self-recognition, humor, empowerment and hope I find in so many of the postcards I receive,” Warren said on PostSecret. “I have also been inspired by the courage shown by each person who has revealed their secret to me, the world, and themselves.”