Secrets can take many forms — they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful.
Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret.com and author of PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives
, shares some of the half-million secrets that strangers have mailed him on postcards.
His name is Frank, and he collects secrets
It all started with a crazy idea in November of 2004. I printed up 3,000 self-addressed postcards, just like this. They were blank on one side, and on the other side I listed some simple instructions. I asked people to anonymously share an artful secret they’d never told anyone before. And I handed out these postcards randomly on the streets of Washington, D.C., not knowing what to expect.
Sharing very special handful of secrets
- I found these stamps as a child, and I have been waiting all my life to have someone to send them to. I never did have someone.
- Dear Birthmother, I have great parents. I’ve found love. I’m happy.
- Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I’m dead.
- I used to work with a bunch of uptight religious people, so sometimes I didn’t wear panties, and just had a big smile and chuckled to myself.
- Your mic wasn’t off during sound check. We all heard you pee.
- Inside this envelope is the ripped up remains of a suicide note I didn’t use. I feel like the happiest person on Earth (now.)
- One of these men is the father of my son. He pays me a lot to keep it a secret.
- That Saturday when you wondered where I was, well, I was getting your ring. It’s in my pocket right now.
- I found your camera at Lollapalooza this summer. I finally got the pictures developedand I’d love to give them to you.
- That’s me, my husband and son. The other pictures are of my very ill grandmother. Thank you for making your site. These pictures mean more to me than you know. My son’s birth is on this camera. He turns four tomorrow.
- When people I love leave voicemails on my phone I always save them in case they die tomorrow and I have no other way of hearing their voice ever again.