Frank Warren, founder of PostSecret at CWU

Thursday night I met Frank Warren, he founded PostSecret and came to Central to speak. I coordinated the media relations, so I was able to meet him backstage before the show.

If you aren't familiar with him or PostSecret, visit the website www.postsecret.com. It started as an art project, where he asked people to anonymously mail him their secrets on a postcard in 2004. To date, he has received hundreds of thousands of postcards, averaging about 1,000 a week. He puts 25 of them up on his website every Sunday.

At first I was skeptical and thought this whole things was weird. Partially because some of the postcards are really disturbing. But after the event I was sold and am a fan now. He talked about how he gets so many emails from people thanking him for doing this. That seeing these postcards helps them realize they aren't alone, or that they are going through something similar to the secrets on the postcards. The website and program have really helped thousands of people around the world and he was a very inspiring speaker.

Also, he encouraged people after his talk to get up if they want and to share their secrets, and about 25 people did. It was very moving. Some secrets were funny, like one girl that shared while she worked at a smoothie stand there was a woman that always came in and was really rude to her. So every day she put weight-gainer in her smoothie..lol. Others were sad, talking about how their parents abused them, or how they just got out of a bad relationship.

The one that stood out to me started at the very beginning of the event. Frank shared a postcard he had just received from someone in Pasco, Wa. The secret said that "I didn't join the military to get away from you, I joined to pay for our wedding." The last woman to stand in line to share her secret at the end o

f the event asked Frank if the postcard had a certain drawing on it, and he said it did. She told the audience that the secret was about her, and that her boyfriend sent it in, and that she broke up with him because he was leaving her, and she never knew that that was the real reason he joined the military. It was absolutely amazing! That Frank would share a postcard he just received and it turned out to be about someone in the crowd!

I encourage all of you to visit the website and read about PostSecret. Who knows, you might become a fan too!