Secrets

I once read a quote by George Bernard Shaw about secrets.  Shaw states, "There are no better secrets kept than the secrets that everybody guesses."  After a little over 5 years of working at the Diary Dairy, I can verify that Shaw's statement is true. 

In my 30+ years of living, I have harbored my share of secrets.  I know what it's like to want to keep something sacred to yourself.  While I encourage kids to keep in communication with their parents about their everyday lives, I also remind them that it is okay to keep some things  to themselves that are downright personal, just so long as the secret doesn't have to do with hurting themselves or another person.

Some of my best kept secrets are kept in my diaries.  As you know, a diary doesn't necessarily have to be a book in which you write your thoughts, hopes, and dreams.  A diary can also be in the form of a person.  Most of you know that Shane, the General Manager of the State College Diary Dairy, and I are dating.  I share a lot of my thoughts, hopes, dreams, frustrations, joys, concerns, and ramblings with him.  The best part is that I know whatever I tell him STAYS WITH HIM.  I know that when I talk to him, it is kept confidential, just like my diary book at home.

Have you ever had a secret that was extra special to you, or even more private than usual, and your friends and family probed you and tried to get you to talk about it?  Did it drive you crazy?  Did it make you mad?  I've had that happen.  I've kept some of my true emotions to myself because I wasn't ready to share them with the world yet, but the people around me kept trying to guess how I was REALLY feeling about a certain situation.  It drove me up the wall.  I was irritated.  Annoyed.  Perhaps you've felt that way.

Fortunately, unlike people, my diary never FORCES me to share my secrets with it.  If anything, and I know this sounds kind of silly, but my diary patiently awaits for me to come write something inside of it when I am ready.  If my diary grew a pair of hands and a mouth and started motioning and calling out to me, "Pssst.  Melissa.  Come here.  Tell me your secrets right now.  C'mon.  I'm just dying to know what's going on in that head of yours," I would have my diary analyzed by a professional scientist.  

Not only does your diary wait patiently, it also keeps your secrets confidential.  Unless someone invades your privacy and cracks it open and reads it, your diary won't go around your school or workplace telling anyone and everyone your deepest, darkest, most private secrets.  

I love writing in my diary.  Not only is it a therapeutic way for me to emotionally wind down at the end of the day, it is also a place where I can hide away my secrets that are best kept to myself.  Anytime I ask for a little privacy, I know where I can go, and I hope you have that special place, too.

~Melissa