To see a video on the PostSecret exhibit in the Student Union Art Gallery, click here.
“I cheated on my MCAT and misdiagnosed my patient — he died.””I’m not a whore. My bed post notches are at 7, though. I’m just looking for affection.” “I have sold hundreds of pounds of pot. It’s the only way I can afford school.”These secrets are just a few of the more than 200 lining the walls of the Student Union Art Gallery for the Anonymously Yours Exhibit, on display until Dec. 12.The secrets are revealed on postcards, index cards and photos of loved ones. They reveal the fantasies, hopes and regrets of University students and Baton Rouge residents as part of the University’s tribute to PostSecret — an art project where people mail in their secrets on a post card. Frank Warren, the creator of PostSecret, compiles the secrets he receives via mail on the PostSecret Web site, PostSecret.com, every Sunday. “There is sort of a theme each week,” Warren said. “Then some of the secrets speak to each other, so I arrange them next to each other to create this dialogue, sort of like we are all connected through our secrets. But I always try to end it with a hopeful secret so people leave feeling more comforted and optimistic about the world.”Warren will speak in the Cox Communications Center for Student Athletes on Nov. 20. He will show some of the secrets he’s received and talk about the insight he has gained from reading them. A question-and-answer segment will directly follow the speech. Afterward, students will have the chance to get PostSecret books signed by Warren. Tickets for the event are available at the Student Union Box Office. Student tickets are free with a University ID, and public tickets cost $10. As of Friday, 326 students claimed tickets to see Warren. Public tickets went on sale Monday, but the sales numbers were not available by press time. The venue holds 1,000 people, according to the Office of Campus Life. Brenna Cadwallader, history sophomore, said she already has her ticket to see Warren and has submitted secrets to both the Union art exhibit and to Warren’s Web site.”It’s just such a release of emotion to be able to reveal the secrets that you can’t tell anybody,” Cadwallader said. “It’s almost freeing. This is the most amazing project.”    Cadwaller said she even has her religious views on Facebook listed as “PostSecret Sundays.”    Twenty years ago, Warren started a document delivery business called Instant Information Systems. But Warren said family secrets from his childhood compelled him to make it his mission to discover the secrets others hold inside. “In my family, there were many secrets that we didn’t talk about, and I didn’t even find out until I grew up,” Warren said. “Dealing with all of these secrets for so long, I wanted to find a way for people for share theirs.”Warren started PostSecret four years ago by handing out thousands of self-addressed postcards to strangers he passed on the street. Since then, PostSecret has exploded into a Internet phenomenon, published in four different languages with more than 1.9 million visitors to date. Warren also has MySpace and Facebook pages devoted to the project and has published four books.As the blog’s popularity grew, Warren began traveling to college campuses across the nation — and recently appeared on The Today Show — to discuss the project he created. “My whole life is secrets now,” Warren said. Warren said he receives upwards of 200 secrets every day and devotes at least 40 hours weekly to PostSecret duties. Warren spends his Saturdays immersed in at least 1,000 postcards, looking for 20 to post on the Web site.”I try to pick secrets that ring with authenticity and represent all of our different emotions,” Warren said. “So I’ll always have a sexy one and a shocking one and hopeful one and so on.”Sarah Schaff, animal science sophomore, said she checks PostSecret every Sunday. “I feel a connection to the secrets,” Schaff said. “You read secrets that you have, and you just know that you’re not alone. Sometimes it’s a secret I didn’t even know I had.”Schaff said she created a bunch of secrets with a group of friends, some of which she submitted to the Union Art Gallery and others she burned, part of what she described as an “amazing freedom of expression.”Renee Edwards, Communication Studies Department chairwoman, said the submission of secrets to PostSecret could have cathartic effects on people. “People have the need and the urge to share their issues and secrets, and sometimes they’re just too dark so they have to reveal them anonymously,” Edwards said. “People who unburden themselves of these secrets feel better about themselves and can also actually be healthier afterward.”Edwards referred to a case study in which college-aged participants were asked to talk about their lives to see the effect it would have on their emotional stability.The control group spoke merely about their daily activities from the past week. But the group asked to reveal personal secrets actually showed signs of improved emotional and mental health, Edwards said. Edwards said the popularity of the PostSecret Web site could be purely for entertainment value, but also could have deeper meanings.”People could use other peoples’ secrets as a form of comparison,” Edwards said. “They could see that maybe their lives aren’t that bad after reading about other peoples’ lives.”James Honeycutt, communication studies professor, said the PostSecret Web site could be compared to an “Internet version of the Catholic confessional.” “The reason people do this is for catharsis,” Honeycutt said. “They can say anything they want from behind the curtain. They can relieve guilt and tension with no fear of retribution from society.”One secret posted in the Union art exhibit reads simply, “Frank Warren: Thank you.” But Warren said he is the grateful one. “It’s a great honor that so many people trust me with their … secrets that they’ve never told before,” Warren said. “I try to earn that trust every day by treating every secret I receive with dignity.”Warren said he’s a “changed person” after reading thousands of intimate secrets from strangers. “I’ve slowly had to become the person who can do this,” Warren said. “But it’s helped me understand that everyone has a secret that can break your heart. If everyone understood that connection, the world could be a better place.”—-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]