Secrets, secrets are no fun — unless they’re shared with Frank Warren. Dubbed “the most-trusted stranger in America,” Frank Warren has taken secrets and has stripped away the one thing that makes a secret, a secret — privacy. Through the creation of his website PostSecret, people from across the world are able to send in anonymous postcards and share their secrets on the Internet. 

Students packed Foellinger Auditorium on Monday evening to do just that — share their secrets with this complete stranger and hear him speak about the website that has captured the hearts of so many. 

I will admit that before attending this presentation, I was very uneducated about the PostSecret craze that seems to have caught the attention of so many other college students. And even upon entering Foellinger I was skeptical, still wondering what kind of presentation he could give about something so simple as a secret. 

But as the presentation began, it quickly became clear I would be pleasantly surprised because this man, this stranger, had definite insight into why people act the way they do. After sharing the history of PostSecret, he ventured into the deep-rooted psychological aspects of the project. He flipped the idea of keeping a secret on its head: You keep secrets not from other people but from yourself. Many people don’t realize the effects of a secret that they’ve been keeping until they share it, and only then they see how the secret has impacted other aspects of their lives.

As I sat in the audience, trying to soak in every wise word Warren spoke, I considered the reason why these postcards have had such an effect on people. 

By writing secrets down, by giving them an illustration and seeing them written before our eyes, we are making them tangible. Through breathing life into these secrets and making them real, we are able to confront them face-to-face and send them away, with the hope of ultimately letting them go.

The project aims to connect people, showing them that they are not alone in their secrets. Warren talked about how keeping a secret could have a detrimental effect on a person by isolating him and making her feel completely and utterly alone. PostSecret has also been a vehicle for change by keeping people informed about suicide prevention. Warren has been a huge advocate of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, and in 2008 alone PostSecret raised over $500,000 for the organization. 

Warren gave the testimonials of people who have sent in postcards to the website. He described how their lives changed after they shared their secrets, how they were able to accept that small confession and understand themselves a little better. In the presentation he showed a picture of one postcard that had an image of a bedroom door with holes in it, describing how the holes were from an abusive parent attempting to get into the child’s room. After the postcard was displayed on the website, he received an influx of emails and postcards that revealed a similar situation. Warren described how one email stood out to him, which thanked him for displaying the postcard. The sender thought they were the only one with an abusive parent, and by seeing that someone else experienced something similar, the sender was able to find strength.

Throughout the presentation he shared some of his favorite postcards that ranged from funny lies that parents would tell their kids to serious confessions of attempted suicide. As a result of the range of topics that were covered, the emotion in the room was palpable. One of the more touching postcards of the night described someone who saved voicemail messages of loved ones, fearing they would die before their voice could be heard again. As voicemail messages began to play in the background, small whimpers accompanied by tears echoed throughout Foellinger. It was in that moment, with that one postcard, that everyone connected, as if we all had just shared a secret. 

After this, many audience members felt compelled to share their own secrets and took to the microphones. 

Warren had moved so many people to not only share their secrets anonymously on the website but to have audience members share their secrets at the presentation without the cloak of anonymity. Everyone who shared a secret that night trusted Warren, and they also put their trust in the hundreds of strangers in the audience because we are all capable of being the most trusted stranger in America. We just have to give people the opportunity to share a personal treasure, their secrets, with us. 

As the presentation ended, Warren offered a last bit of insight: “When we keep a secret, we are building walls, but when we share a secret, we are building bridges.” 

Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets, when shared, can save someone.

Kate is a junior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].