Secrets
By Emily, age 19, Newfoundland
Sweet Designs Featured Writer
I'm sure a lot of you have heard of Post Secret*. For those of you who haven't, I'll enlighten you. Post Secret is a community mail art project website run by Frank Warren. People anonymously send in secrets on post cards and some of them end up on the website, while others end up in the books that Frank Warren has published.
I check the website religiously every Sunday, looking for secrets that sound like I wrote them and somehow relate to my life. Secretly it's a relief to realize you're not alone in the world and that someone else has the same problems or accomplishments as you.
Today, as I read the latest batch of secrets, I slowly came to the realization that I have a lot of secrets. I had never considered myself as someone who had too many, but in fact I keep a lot.
First, I thought about all of the secrets I keep from my parents. They really do think that I'm pretty much a perfect child. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad person, but I do a lot of things they wouldn't approve of.
Then I thought of all the secrets I keep from everyone else. Most people seem to think that I'm an open book or that I'm always happy and cheerful, or that I'm the most confident person in the world. In reality, even though I am generally a happy-go-lucky person, I have a disease that controls my life** and I'm not confident at all.
Finally, I thought about all the work that it took to keep these secrets. I lie to people, and it's become a hassle to keep up with all the lies. If I just told people the truth, they wouldn't think the things they do about me, whether good or bad. They would know who I am and not the person I appear to be.
* For more on Post Secret, read Christina's July '07 article
** For more on Emily's struggles, click on the Gold Star and read her previous articles.
