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Project Reveals Students' Deepest, Darkest Secrets
11/19/09 9:41 pm   |   reporter: Honora Gathings   producer: Honora Gathings
ABC 33/40 News - Project Reveals Students' Deepest, Darkest Secrets
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Homewood - Everyone has a secret, and some students are encouraging others to get them out into the open.

Two dormmates regularly read a website called Post Secret. They began connecting with the anonymous confessions that were submitted by mail to the webmaster. That's when they decided to launch Samford Secret.

"Everyone tries to put on their best face but there is really a lot of other things people deal with," said Andrew Crosson, organizer of Samford Secret.

Students now have a wall in the library to share their secrets and deal with them.

"I feel emptiness," said an empty white card with small writing on the bottom.

"I'm scared of the future," said another.

The project isn't a secret but what people write on the blank cards and mail to the organizers to be posted on the wall is.

"I wish my grandparents could at least send a birthday card," read a message in letters cut out of a magazine.

"I think I'm gay but I don't want to be. I'm praying for a miracle," said another.

"It just shows such a dramatic view of what humanity is and who we really are," said Jonathan Haas, the other organizer of Samford Secret.

Crosson and Haas oversaw the Samford project and even shared their own intimate secrets for the first time.

"Just putting that out there for people to see and not necessarily have my name attached to me is very freeing," said Crosson.

"It's something I've carried around for years and to have the opportunity to let it go was really a great feeling," said Haas.

And more students are connecting with the confessions.

"We are all going through the same things and think they're secrets," said one student.

It was a great way to get out in the Samford community and just teach about how we should be a Christian community and how we should be able to come out to our friends with our secrets," said Austin Gill, a Samford student.

And some students are now even sharing their secrets out loud.

"This morning students stood up infront of 600 of their peers and admitted something that they had been dealing with. Really moving to see this is a community. These are your neighbors," said Crosson.

"Just that shows the lines of communication have opened and people are feeling a little more comfortable in talking about things they are going through," said Haas.

Since the project started, the faculty adviser says more students have sought help from counselors in dealing with their secrets.

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