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A spirit that is not afraid

Students send in their secrets

Helen Northcutt / GRAPHICS EDITOR
Helen Northcutt / GRAPHICS EDITOR

No longer is a confessional the only safe place to unload secrets.

Since the creation of PostSecret, a mailbox is as far as one must go.

"I make all of my most important business calls from this bathroom," read one postcard with a photo of a toilet attached.

Others are secrets about sex and relationships.

"Sex comes easy," another secret-sharer wrote. "What I wouldn't do for a man to hold my hand."

Some secrets are more light-hearted.

Confessions of drug use, adultery, secret fetishes and hidden desires are submitted as well.

Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret, has published five books full of secrets.

Melanie Hyatt, junior in social science education, said she has read all of the PostSecret books and the posts online.

Hyatt said the secrets provide insight into other people's lives.

"After reading them you will look at people you pass on campus and think to yourself, 'I wonder what secrets that person holds,'" Hyatt said. "It makes life into a fascinating mystery." Kseniya Gutman, junior in history and political science, said reading other people's secrets made her realize how many people think the same way she does.

Warren has raised more than $500,000 for suicide prevention since PostSe- cret was created.

According to the Post-Secret blog, a peer-to-peer online crisis center will soon be available. Jenna Silverman, senior staff clinician at Auburn Student Counseling Services, said sharing secrets anonymously with peers is a good way to begin seeking help for more serious problems.

"It can be a good way to start the process of talking about concerns that most people are not able to speak openly about," Silverman said. "It gets rid of a lot of fear of being able to share and open up about a secret."

Every person deals with grief differently.

"The instant connections and relationships that are created between people that have the same secret makes it so clear that humans are not supposed to deal with strife and tribulation alone," said Danny Dorr, senior in mechanical engineering. "These events make embarrassment and rejection a moot point."

Countless secret-sharers across the world elaborately decorate postcards, write their secrets on them and mail them to Warren to post.

Warren travels to college campuses throughout the country to speak about PostSecret.

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He will be speaking at Auburn Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Student Center ballroom.

Two microphones will be onstage, and students will be able to share their secrets out loud in front of the audience.

The event is for Auburn students only.

Admission is $1, and tickets will go on sale one week before the event.

Students will be able to meet Warren after the event at a book signing.

The newest PostSecret book, New York Times bestseller "PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God," will be available to buy.

PostSecret also has a Web site, where submitted postcards are scanned and posted on PostSecret's Blogger page.


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