Sunday Secrets

2012-01-21T23:34:00.010-05:00

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail
in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
PostSecret, 13345 Copper Ridge Road, Germantown, MD 20874, USA

-----Email-----

There's only a tiny chance this secret was intended for me, but nonetheless - I'd like to thank the sender. I've been in a bit of a down patch, and this secret made me realise that I know there are people out there I've done well by, and maybe some who would want to thank me, too.

In return, I'd like to remind everyone of the same fact. There's always someone, who you wouldn't necessarily expect, who is grateful you exist.

Alex.

-----Email-----

Frank,

My brother Alex died a couple months ago very suddenly at the age of 20 while studying abroad in London. This reminds me that he is not forgotten nor are his beautiful accomplishments of caring for others. Alexander means "defender, protector of mankind", and that is exactly who he was to so many people. Thank you for posting this secret and reminding me of who my brother was and how he impacted lives, even if it was for a tragically short time.

-----Email-----

Frank,

On the PostSecret app, I saw exchanges from soldiers to citizens asking for letters or care packages...

The day after I dropped my fiancé off at the airport for his deployment to Afghanistan, I received a message from him stating that he wanted to end our relationship.

...I remembered the soldiers on the PS app requesting letters. I still have a lot of love that I feel I need to send overseas. Is there anyway possibly that those addresses could be forwarded to me so I can carry out what I feel I need to do?

-----Twitter-----

@postsecret Frank, this link may help the emailer who wants to help soldiers. - Best of luck!

-----Email-----

This past Sunday you posted a twitter reply to a woman's plea for another soldier to help love that included information about the Soldier's Angels organization. Since then, my boyfriend and I have joined, adopted a soldier, and today we mailed out our first letter to him. We have committed to sending him at least one care package a month, and our dormmates and friends are helping too.

The soldier's waiting pool seemed to have taken a significant dip since Sunday. It has since been filled with more soldiers eager to feel loved and appreciated. The postsecret community has once again made me proud!

-----Email-----

Frank--

I don't know if you'll actually read this, but I'll try. I thought you'd like to hear a heartwarming story resulting from the PostSecret App.

During the last week of the app's existence, someone posted a "secret" saying that she was looking for her half sister, whom she'd never met. She gave some basic information and asked the PS community to help. I am a professional researcher and couldn't resist a plea like this, so I hunted around a bit on the web.

I very quickly discovered that the poster's sister had responded to a request the poster had left on a website where people can search for lost relatives. The only problem was that the original poster had left her message in Nov. 2010, and the sister had not found it until Dec. 2011. By the time the sister posted her response, the poster was no longer checking the website. Fortunately, the sister was just as eager to make the connection as the original poster.

I took a screenshot of the sister's response and posted it to the PS app. Fortunately the original poster saw it, and e-mailed her sister.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the poster saying that she and her sister had indeed connected and are now e-mailing each other daily. They hope to meet next summer--she is in Illinois and her sister is in Virginia. She thanked me for the "priceless gift" I had given both of them.

I just wanted you to know about one more wonderful thing that has come from the PostSecret App. I'm so sorry that some bad actors ruined it, but it did a lot of good while it was running. Thank you for creating it.

Best of the App

2012-01-21T23:09:00.002-05:00

See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.

Thanks to everyone for all the messages of support. And again, to anyone who would like a refund for the PostSecret iPhone App, please mail me a self-addressed stamped envelope. I will mail you back $2.00 plus postage both ways.

-Frank

PostSecret on Facebook

-----Email-----

Hello Frank

The greatest thing the PostSecret project has done for me is liberate me from false shame. My parents are addicted to meth and I was bullied day in and day out at school for years. But because of your project and the love of those in my life, I realized that my greatest pain can transform itself into my greatest strength. I am no longer allowing my abusers to get away with what they did to me and have started writing down all the secrets I kept in my past.

Beauty can arise from ugliness. Your project has helped me see my secrets for what they are: Not a burden, but a blessing of strength and hope I could never have imagined.