Secrets

I'm starting this thing called "an essay a week" challenge until the end of the summer. I like the idea of having a set topic to write about. So I'm doing it too! 

This week's topic is: "May 4th: We all have secrets. Some of them involve the Kardashians. Others involve that stench underneath your bed. Whatever they are, tell us something no one knows about you."

I vaguely remember blogging about secrets, when I went through of phase in gr 10-11 where I loved browsing through the pages of Post Secret and calling it “heavy reading”. But secrets are a nice thing, because they can unite us in a way that doesn’t involve holding hands in a circle while swaying to Kumbayah. Amongst these other methods of bonding often employed during the structured mingling of Frosh week, Frosh planners never caught on to secret-sharing as a meaningful way of getting to know another person.

I think secrets are so easy to keep now! It’s almost shameful! It’s not a skill to keep a secret, it’s a way of life. People always say that posting with Facebook and other social media, we’ve lost the ability to keep up some sort of private life. I don’t think this is necessarily true. People on Facebook restrict what they want you to see. It’s a personal museum, a collection of pictures of fun times you had with your friends, or tagged posts of fun things you did with cool people. You tailor your profile based on what you want other people to see you. You want to be more indie you say? Pose in front of more brick walls and instagram that shiz. Post it. No one will ever know that you harbor a secret love for Celine Dion or Haddaway because all they see on ‘liked’ pages are the Morning Benders or other hip bands that no one has ever heard of. You can create the online identity that you selected. I’m not hating on people who do this because we all do--and maybe it’s just another reason to stand in circles and sway to kumbayah. Maybe. Probably not, though.

I think that secrets also serve as milestones in a friendship or any sort of relationship. There are level I secrets which make you shrug your shoulders and say “meh, I’ve heard better”. They are the ones that aren’t really embarrassing but fall more into the category of quirky personality trait. Level II secrets usually involve an event of the past, maybe an incident that has a minor blush factor. Level III secrets can involve an anecdote and usually carry a moral dimension; you did something wrong, you screwed up. Then there’s level IV---it’s a combination of all the other levels with a heavy emphasis on the moral dimension and a more intense version of quirky personality trait. This is the “I-read-about-people-like-you-in-my-psych-textbook” -type secret. If they stick around for level IV, I’d say they’re a keeper!

I never know how to end my blogposts. They usually end with some sort of variation of “ok, bye” or “that’s enough now”.

Well, in celebration of secret-sharing, hand holding and other rainbow surfing activities, I will end with a level I secret: 

I really like rapping to Superbass.  NICKI MINAJ is such a good rapper! There I said it !