An Intern's First Impressions

Sarah, Michelle, Frank, Ashley, and Kaitlin

Hi everyone, I'm Sarah, the new intern!

Upon first entrance into the top-secret location of the PostSecret Lair, I was overcome with a feeling that can only be correctly expressed in one word—gobsmacked. More than 250,000 secrets were carefully made, comprised of laughter, tears, hopes, dreams, and sadness. All of those secrets were equally as carefully dealt with. Each one was read, digested, sorted and stored. All the individual secrets are stored together to form a giant mountain of secrets. Mt. PostSecret, as I like to call it, is quite impressive, even rivaling some of the mountains I’m used to seeing in my native Colorado (on a slightly different scale of course)!

As an intern, the majority of my time is spent sorting and organizing all the PostSecrets, making bricks to add to the ever-growing Mt. PostSecret. After my first week, I can say there are some similar themes that keep popping up in the secrets. First, it seems everyone is in love with their best friend but is afraid to tell them. This secret is very common; maybe your best friend feels the same way?! Another popular secret is about cheating in a relationship. Whether it is from the person who cheated, or the one that got cheated on, it seems sadness comes from both parties. Other common secrets are about depression and loneliness. I wish there was a way to connect all the lonely people out there because although lonely, they are certainly not alone in their feelings! Maybe one day there will be an app for that?

Another fun task we do as interns is helping Frank translate or decode PostSecrets. I feel like a detective and it is really cool to be able to engage a secret and try to understand its true meaning. From my one week as in intern, I’ve already learned how to read Braille, how awesome is that?

We have some great stuff in the works for this summer; I’m so excited and can’t wait to share it all with you! The PostSecret community is truly amazing and wouldn’t be possible without all the brave people like you who share your secrets! Thanks for allowing us interns to see your secrets, we have bonded over so many of them already!

Until next time,

Sarah

PS: Kaitlin here, encroaching on Sarah's post. I want to reiterate that SERIOUSLY Y'ALL, if you are in love with your best friend, chances are they are in love with you too!! That has to be the secret we get the most! Everyone is diggin' on their BFF. So... maybe you should go for it!

Popular Myths About PostSecret

Hey everyone! Recently I came across someone on the Internet spewing false accusations about the truthfulness of PostSecret. While my online battle with him is besides the point (the important thing is that I was victorious), it got me thinking that there are many myths about PostSecret that are swirling around out there. Allow me to address the three main misconceptions that I've heard.

Myth #1: Frank makes all of the postcards himself.
Truth: All I can really say to this is LOL. People actually think that this guy sits around making postcards with different languages, handwritings, and images all day? Besides, even if this had been true, people would have started sending in their own secrets eventually. But no, Frank does not make the postcards. I’m giggling at the thought of him sitting with just a glue stick, glitter and his imagination all day.

Myth #2: Frank doesn’t read all of the secrets or keep all of them.
Truth: Every secret is mailed to Frank’s house. I see him read each secret everyday. He has this same look on his face while he reads them that is simultaneously very serious and thoughtful. He then hands them off to us to organize and archive in the PostSecret lair until he decides how best to use them. He still owns every single postcard that he has ever received, and I’ve heard him refer to it as a “precious archive.”

Myth #3: There’s an online archive of secrets that have appeared on the website in the past.
Truth: There is no official online archive that Frank manages of past website secrets. Frank has mentioned how he wants to build a long-term relationship with the PostSecret fans; if there were an online archive, many people might spend all night reading hundreds of secrets and become burnt out, and perhaps never read PostSecret again. He wants it to be more like a TV show: there's one episode a week, and hopefully it keeps people interested enough to keep coming back for more.

There are more secrets to debunk, but right now this post is getting a bit long, so more will come later! Who else has a myth that they'd like us to address?

-Kaitlin

Decoding

Hey everyone,

We got this postcard yesterday. It has a pattern of numbers on the back. Can anyone figure out if they mean anything? Click on the picture to see a larger version.





-Kaitlin

Internship Inquiries

Hey everyone, it's Kaitlin.

The internship at PostSecret is one that's not only a lot of fun, but also full of responsibility. Each summer, interns make sure that every secret is handled properly and stored safely, and we take care to ensure that not a single postcard is lost.

We almost have a full team of interns this summer, but we're looking for one more motivated, hard-working PostSecret enthusiast. The unpaid internship takes a lot of effort and if you meet the requirements below and feel that you would be right for the job, please send your resumes to postsecretintern@gmail.com (anything emailed to this address goes to the interns at PostSecret).

Requirements:
-Must live within commuting distance of Germantown, MD.

-Must own a car.
-Must be able to start immediately.

-Must be able to keep the location of the PostSecret Lair confidential! :)

Thanks y'all!

First day!

PostSecret is officially the coolest thing ever.

Today was my first day as the PostSecret head intern, and it was incredible. I met Frank and we sat on the porch in the beautiful weather and discussed the plans that he has for this summer, and some really good stuff is in the works. When you all find out what's going on, your brain is going to explode with awesomeness. Trust me on this.

We then traveled to what I have appropriately coined the "PostSecret Lair." I can't give out too many details, but it's basically the cave where Frank reads and keeps all of the secrets. There are thousands upon thousands of postcards that he organizes after he reads them... and he reads every single one of them! This man is dedicated to his project. Who wouldn't be? It's fantastic. He handed me a bin of the secrets he was finished reading, and my job is to archive them until they can be used at a later date. Holding those postcards in my hand is something I will never forget. It's like being able to read a thousand PostSecret books at once. It's awe-inspiring. You guys and gals who submit secrets are amazing, multi-faceted, strong people.

Before I left, we took a picture of me in front of the famous mailbox that receives all of those postcards. Here it is. If you can't tell by my pained but elated expression, it was awfully bright outside.





Until next time,
Kaitlin

New Summer, New Faces

Scene: Me standing in the common room of my dorm, jumping up and down in the middle of five bewildered strangers. I had just gotten off of the phone with Frank Warren, the creator of PostSecret, and he had offered me a job this summer. I was trying not to squeal too much.

My first thought: Mind exploding. Can’t even think. This is going to be the best summer ever. I am going to see the postcards, hold these people’s secrets in my hand.

My second thought: this must be some sort of joke. Someone on the internet is messing with me, and I’m going to end up looking like an idiot. That person I just talked to on the phone is probably having a really good laugh right now at my expense. So what did I do? Like any good internet sleuth, I looked up a Frank Warren interview to see if the voice was similar. I found one on youtube, and sure enough, the voices matched. I re-examined the last five minutes of my life and realized that this might actually be real.

Cut to calling my best friend. Voicemail. Very disappointing. Cut to calling my boyfriend. Voicemail!! Curses! I decided I don’t like either of them that much anyway. So I called my little sister. “Corinne…” I said with a shaky voice. “I just got the job as the PostSecret intern.” I don’t remember her exact reaction because I was still in shock, but it was something along the lines of “OMG OMGZ OMG OMG OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS THAT’S SO COOL OMG ARE YOU GOING TO MEET THE GUY WHO MAKES THE BOOKS ARE YOU GOING TO SEE THE POSTCARDS OMG SOOOOO JEALOUS.” Or something like that.

Here I am, a few months later, about to start my internship, and I could not be more excited. My name is Kaitlin, and this summer I will be joined by veteran intern Michelle (you can find her old posts further on this blog) and new intern Ashley. I look forward to blogging for you.

PS- Anyone else have any exciting job stories? Let me hear them in the comments section!

PostSecret Community Picnic

I’ve been a long-time fan of the PostSecret blog. As long as I can remember, I have been checking the site every Sunday, eager to see what had been posted for that week. Every single secret is touching in its own way, but there were some that have resonated with me more than others over the years. One of these is a card I believe was posted in August 2006: “We’re all more alike than I ever could have imagined.” After attending this year’s PostSecret Picnic, I couldn’t help but think about that card.

Let me start by saying that I am not an active member of the online PostSecret community – I’m a pretty shy person, even in an online setting, and I never had the courage to ever post anything on the message boards. I knew that the picnic was for the community members, so I was apprehensive about attending – what if I have no one to talk to? What if I can’t think of anything to say? What if I can’t find anything in common with anyone there? Despite my nerves, I looked forward to attending – worst case scenario, it would be an uncomfortable afternoon and I would be able to go home afterward and move on.

After being at the picnic for awhile, however, I quickly realized I should not have been so worried. What I love most about PostSecret is its ability to bring thousands of strangers together in one great community. This picnic was just a small cross-section of that enormous group, but we definitely all had at least one thing in common – PostSecret. I talked to some of the attendees and swapped stories about postcards that carried extra meaning. PostSecret serves as a great icebreaker, and this shared interest led to conversations ranging from favorite band to darkest moments in life. Over the course of several hours, I could see that despite the differences between everyone who was there, we all really were more alike than I ever did imagine.

The talks by Frank, Reese and Casie were all great and led me to understand a bit more about PostSecret, Hopeline and the issues they deal with. However, it was my discussions with people there like me that affected me the most – recognizing myself in the stories of these strangers. It’s thanks to groups like the PostSecret community that we are able to realize how connected we all are.

-Kirsty