Last week, students enjoyed an exhibit called “Stony Brook Secrets.” A takeoff of the popular website PostSecret.com, students anonymously wrote secrets on postcards and handed them in at spots around campus. The postcard secrets were then showcased on the walls, and hung from the ceiling, in a room in the Tabler Arts Center for all to see.
“I’ve been following PostSecret for quite some time myself, and when I was a [Resident Assistant] last year, I wanted to do something different because you see a lot of the same programs going on around campus,” said Ed Arzomand, the junior who organized the event. “So I said let me try to do PostSecret on campus and see how that works.”
A variety of secrets were displayed, ranging from love life and family issues to insecurity and secret obsessions (e.g. Twilight and Justin Bieber). Written in many different handwritings and on brightly colored and sometimes decorated postcards, there was a lot to take in.
“It was interesting,” said Chelsea Moccio, a freshman who attended the event. “Some [secrets] were funny, but others were really sad.”
Nearly all of the submissions were displayed; only about five of 400 were rejected. Arzomand said he worked with the Center for Prevention and Outreach to make sure none of the secrets promoted anything unhealthy.
Last year, the event was done on a smaller scale, but it gained popularity. Arzomand predicts that next year’s event will have an even bigger turnout and said, “We’ve hit almost 500 visitors and about 490 of them have told me to do it again either semesterly or annually!”