I n d ep en d en t
Issue no.
S tu d e n t
V o ic e
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B o is e
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Sin ce
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43
February 2012
Volume 24
Boise, Idaho
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First issue free
Top Stories
Fabulous freshman
Broncos take third in a row with last second victory over TCU.
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Lindsey Hileman Lifestyles Editor
Sure, it can be thrilling to see a celebrity bombshell dropped on the cover of a supermarket tabloid. But more intriguing still, may be the anonymous postcards revealing the secrets of strangers published in the seven PostSecret books and each Sunday on PostSecret.com, a blog that has had more than 500 million visitors.
Going green won’t kill you
Study shows a little pot smoking isn’t that bad for you.
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Appleton is remembered
A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday morning.
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David Wuerth/THE ARBITER
A simple stage was set at the Morrison Center on Thursday for the PostSecret Live event where creator Frank Warren disclosed to 924 audience members the most “secret secrets” he’s received since he began the PostSecret project in 2004. Thursday’s event began with the All American Rejects’ music video, “Dirty Little Secret,” projected on the screen. The video was in heavy rotation in 2005 and used real postcards that Warren received in the first year of the PostSecret project. The music video includes secrets like, “When I eat, I feel like a failure,” “I had gay sex at church camp” and “I know it really stinks but I like the smell of my own poop.” A dozen people in the Morrison Center audience raised their hands to admit they have sent Warren a secret. Almost everyone raised their hand when Warren asked who had visited his blog. And the crowd gave a hearty round of applause for the one and only postal worker in the audience. Warren began PostSecret as a community art project by soliciting the secrets of strangers. He invited people to send a homemade postcard with their secret to his home in Maryland. The only requirements were that it was true and had never been shared with anyone else. Since then, Warren has received over a half million secrets. He’s been called the “most trusted stranger in America.” Warren said his goal for these live events is to try to create a nonjudgmental environment where people feel comfortable telling a secret they’ve never told before. “For me the most interesting part is listening to audience member secrets,” Warren said.
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The secrets on this page and arbiteronline.com were submited to The Arbiter by Boise community members.
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At the Morrison Center Thursday, PostSecret creator Frank Warren reveals that someone snuck dinner into a PostSecret Live event then sent him the evidence in the form of a secret on and In-N-Out Burger wrapper.
It would seem he succeeded in putting the crowd at ease. Larissa Baumgartner was one of almost 20 people who approached the microphone to share a secret. After the event she spoke about the secrets she’s read on the blog that inspired her to share her own. “Each one that speaks to me I save on my hard drive,” Baumgartner said. “I think they’ve totaled over 1,000 at this point.” “I like the ones where people are like, ‘I loved this person but I never told them and I wish I would have,’ ” Stephanie Clark, junior history secondary education major, said. The messages on the postcards are sometimes funny and sometimes dark—many reveal the writer’s despair, loneliness or suicidal thoughts—but often the secrets are inspiring and urge readers to change their lives.
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“I look past peoples’ appearances now and think: what is their secret?” Alyssa Duncan, sophomore criminal justice major, said. “It’s given me a new outlook.” The good, the bad, the gross, the criminal—Warren has seen it all. “Anytime you open yourself up for all kinds of secrets, you better have an open mind. I get secrets everyday that surprise me, but I’m not too shocked anymore,” Warren said. In 2011, a Post Secret app was released for iOS but after less than four months, Warren had to make the difficult decision to shut it down due to malicious posts. At the time, Warren explained to the app users and his blog followers that, though the pornographic, gruesome and sometimes threatening messages only accounted for one percent of the total content, with over 2 million secrets shared in those three short months, the negativity was still too overwhelming.
See FRANK WARREN OF POSTSECRET I page 3
Illustration Bree Jones/THE ARBITER
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