Along with all your secrets Kathy put two PostSecret books in my mailbox.  As you can see the covers are designed to resemble packages with my home address, stamps, cancellation marks and even artificial bar code stickers.

Apparently, these books ended up at the Post Office and were delivered to me as if they were parcels because of how the covers looked.

Inside one of the books was a Valentines Day card by a generous man who evidently left the book as a gift for a stranger.  (The fact that I got two in one day seems to be a coincidence.)

This was the kind message written inside the card.

Congrats on your amazing discovery of this PostSecret book - it is yours to keep or pass on or leave for someone else to find.  Enclosed (in this book) is one of my secrets and one postage paid blank postcard for your secret - I hope you will mail them both in and watch on the PostSecret website.

Every year I buy a book to support this amazing interactive art project and leave it for someone to enjoy and discover the story of PostSecret.

The generous donor included his email address on the card so I sent him an email explaining how her book found me and invited her to write back.  (See below.)

I found both postcards he included in the book and moved them to the page that holds the one secret of mine in the book.  (The one on the Catcher in the Rye book cover.)

I would like to give both special books away to lucky PostSecret Blog readers.  The first book gets Federal Expressed to the person who writes the 200th comment below.  The second book (in which I slipped an additional surprise) goes to the random person who writes the 400th comment below.

Good Luck!




Wow...our post office is really diligent. I dropped the white book off in the package deposit box at our post office with several eBay packages - I hadn't thought the cover would convince them to send the book back to you, Frank (I hoped an employee would keep it).

Here I was dreaming of all of my book's mysterious travels and interactions and if I would ever find out what became of it or see my secret on the site as proof that it had even been discovered by someone! Well, at least it reached good hands - secrets intact...I wonder who will get it now.

The Valentine was from a pack of them I had bought for my sister, nieces, and girlfriends on Valentine's Day years ago...it was the only card I had lying around with an envelope, so I used it to contain a note the finder of the book...guess I'll have to keep reading to see where it goes...thanks for taking the time to write and let me know you received it...my daily e-mail is orders@alteredattic.com if the
receiver or anyone wants to help me track its future progress, twists, and turns...September

Posted by Altered Attic on Sunday, February 01, 2009 - 12:46 PM

            At the bottom of this Blog I have listed the schools I will be traveling to for PostSecret Events.  It is difficult to describe exactly what happens at these live events; anything from wedding proposals to extraordinary meetings. This letter mailed to me recently describes one of those incredible coincidences that occurred at a PostSecret Event and the friendship that came from it. . .

.. ..

            It was October 9, 2008, the day of the PostSecret Event at the University of Buffalo,a day I had been looking forward to since I purchased my ticket.  I had class from 1:00-2:15 that day.  So thought I would stop at the mall and pickup one of the books. 

            I went to Borders, and asked the salesclerk where the PostSecret books were located in the store.  I grabbed “A Lifetime of Secrets,” began flipping through the pages, and saw a torn page.  So I returned to it, and I had been terribly mistaken.  I was shocked.  I had found a secret.

            It was about a quarter of a sheet of paper and was written on the back of a French vocabulary worksheet.   Written in red colored pencil, it read, “I laid in your bed when everyone was downstairs and I went to your room to get a hoodie.  I just wanted to see what it might have been like if I had said “yes.”  Since May 30, I’ve been in love with you.”

            I was still in shock.  It was so surreal.  I mean, I read about these things, but never had I thought that I would be part of such an experience.

            I had to purchase that very book.  So I made my way up to the register and cashed out. Once I got back to my car, I had sent a text to my friend, who was going to the event later that evening with me, telling her I had found a secret in the book I just purchased.

            I was ecstatic.

            After class, we arrived at the event and I had asked my friend if it would be appropriate if I share it with the rest of the audience, when asked.  She encouraged me.  So once you said that it was about time for“your favorite part,” I quickly turned to my right, and asked the stranger next to me what she thought. 

            I then stood up and made my way to the microphone.

            I was the second person in line, and a girl behind me was pretty emotional, crying a lot—later we found out that her reasoning was understandable.  I had told her about my situation and asked her what she thought I should do.  She encouraged me saying, “I think you should…that would be great and I think the person would appreciate you for doing so.” At that point, I had felt that I had an obligation to do so, but was more than glad to share my amazing experience with the rest of the audience.

            After you had spoke with a few people, in the balcony, and to the left of my line, it was time for me to speak,

            “I went to the store today to get one of your books. They didn’t have the one I wanted, so I started to flip through the pages of the ones they had.  And as I flipped through this one,” holding the book up for the audience, “I found a secret that someone had left in it.  So I just want to share that with you tonight…‘I layed in your bed when everyone was downstairs and I went to your room to get a hoodie.  I just wanted to see what it might have been like if I had said “yes.”  Since May 30,I’ve been in love with you.”

            You then replied, thanking me for sharing that amazing story and noted just how great itwas that I not only found it, but shared it with everyone that night.  I walked away from the microphone, and took my first step down the stairs, only to be stopped by the girl behind me.  She grabbed my shoulder, looked me square in the eyes and said, “That was my secret.”

            Wow.  I had no idea what to say or what to think.  So I replied, “Whoa, I can’t believe this.  I hope you don’t mind that I shared it.”

            “No, not at all. Thank you.  I appreciate it,” she said.

            Smiling, I gave her a simple, “you’re welcome,” and proceeded back to my seat.

            Once I reached my seat, she then took the microphone, and said, “That boy just read my secret I left in one of your books at Borders.” 

            You could have heard a pin drop.

            The sharing had ended, and a closing video had begun. My friend and I got up, because we wanted to get in line for an autograph.  When I got to the top and walked out the doors of the auditorium, I found myself, yet again, face-to-face with the girl who had written that secret.

            We were both still in shock, and could not believe what we just experienced.  So we got in line, with her and her group of friends, along with my friend and I.  After I told her my story, about how I found it and whatnot, we talked about how we felt.  We then exchanged names, and said we would, “Find each other and be Facebook friends.”  To our surprise, while we were conversing, people were taking pictures of us from afar, and some even came up and asked us if they could take a picture of us.  Apparently, we must not have been the only two in awe of the happening.

            After we each met you, Kara and I talked a bit more, before saying our goodbyes.

            The night had come to an end.  And personally, I will never forget the feeling I had when I found the secret, and then met the author of the secret.  Like I said before, it was so surreal.  I simply cannot put into words how it felt to be apart of, in my opinion, something that had a level of connectedness, unparalleled by any other experience I’ve ever heard of. 

            That day was one of the most inspirational days of my life.  The way I look at the world now is so very different than I used to.  Things are the way they are for a reason.  You may not know of the reason as the present moment, but one day things will be clear.  If you can trust this, then you will find that you will trust those around you. Once we can trust others, we will feel comfortable enough to share our secrets,releasing them from the prison inside us. 

            And it is my hope that one day secrets will cease to exist.  They not only trap us mentally, physically,and emotionally, but they also put a strain on everything and everyone around us; they prevent us from being ourselves, something neither you, the world or myself, can afford.

            In closing I’d like to reference one of my favorite secrets.  It depicts a pregnant woman, with a painting of the Earth on her belly.  The text on the card read, “We’re all so connected, I desperately wish we knew it.”