S ecrets are meant to be kept unknown by others, but for some people secrets can be exposed only in an artsy way.
I nspired by the community art project PostSecret, Hubbard Hall Resident Assistants and Intercultural Aids organized the event Post Secret, where students had the opportunity to share their most private secrets in a creative and anonymous way.
“ We have students that come from all over the world and have different experiences and we want to create inclusive ways so they can express who they are,” Hubbard Hall Assistant Community Director Lauren Irwin said.
T hroughout one hour, residents of East Neighborhood had the opportunity to create postcards where they shared their deepest secrets. The postcards are going to be part of an exhibition in Hubbard Hall.
C omparative cultures and politics sophomore Rhyan Sexton said “the anonymous part the activity makes it serious, it felt that it was a real secret.”
R esident Assistant Lauren Leslie was in middle school when she first read about PostSecret.
“ It feels relieving and you get to share something that no one else knows that is from you,” Leslie said.
“ You see the diversity of MSU but you just don’t know that by looking at someone, and just seeing that people have similar secrets as you, that you are not alone through similar situations,” social work freshman Elaina Rodriguez said.
F or physiology freshman Carole Walsh, secrets can deal with other people as well.
“ They are something that you don’t want to say because you can hurt someone,” Walsh said.
P ostSecret is the largest advertisement-free Blog in the world.
I t was started in 2004, when Frank Warren printed out 3,000 blank self-addressed postcards and handed them to strangers in Washington D.C.
T he only thing he asked the strangers was to write down a secret in a creative way and send it to him.
“ I was expecting to get 100 and ended up receiving more than 500,000,” Warren said.
I n a 2012 TED Talk, Warren explained secrets “can take many forms, they can be shocking, or silly or soulful they can connect us to our deepest humanity or with people we will never meet again.”
W arren said he wanted to “create a safe place where people can share what is in their hearts and soul.”
