Frank Warren At Coe

In 2007, Frank Warren created a website called Post Secret where anyone can send postcards to Frank with their deepest, darkest secrets.  Or funny secrets, he accepts those too.  Every Sunday he posts them and the website has taken off with thousands of people sending him secrets.  Student Senate was able to book him on Saturday night as part of the Marquis Series they host each year.  As a fellow blogger I felt it was important to attend.  It was a full house in Sinclair Auditorium, some of the people in attendance driving four to five hours to see Warren; he's big stuff.  He was an excellent speaker and shared a lot of interesting things with us.  The biggest part of Post Secret to him is helping people who are thinking about committing suicide; he has been personally affected by it and has received multiple postcards from people.  Warren has published five books filled with secrets and much of the proceeds have gone to help with suicide awareness and prevention.  He shared his story, why he started the website, some secrets that were unable to be published in his books for various reasons and also allowed people to share their own secrets.  It was an interesting experience because I really thought about my secrets.  Warren encouraged us to share our secrets because he believes the secrets are keeping us from being ourselves.  He has a point and I spent the rest of the night thinking of random secrets.  Warren also talked about doing something you believe in; he believed strongly in a place to share secrets and look where he is today.  I think the most interesting thing Warren said was that secret means "come closer" in Hebrew.  I thought that was interesting because I think in today's society we feel the need to keep secrets close to us and never let anyone know.  Warren was telling us it's okay to share our secrets because when we do, we know we are not alone.  Just knowing you don't have to carry a burden of secret all alone is a good feeling.  Overall, I thought Warren was a good choice for Marquis Series and I'm glad so many people came out to support him and hear what he had to say!