Pssssst.

Yeah, you.

I may not be close enough to whisper in anybody's ear. Nonetheless, here is where I will tell secrets. They won't only be my own. In fact, I will also document some of the secrets shared with me that are pertinent to this blog, I will delve further into some famous secrets that have already been uncovered in history and literature, and I will explore the parts of our psyches that clamp down on to information on others that could potentially increase their vulnerability.

What's so funny about secrets is that, especially in the present day and age with the exposure of the "dirty details" technology is capable of, secrets are right in front of us all the time.

Just ask somebody like Jennifer Lwarence, the beautiful 24-year old star featured in the background of this blog on the Vanity Fair cover. Up until about five weeks ago, she was one of Hollowood's straightest arrows (yes, arrows, like the ones she is known for shooting with deadly accuracy in the Hunger Games films). Scratch that, she still is one of Hollywood's straightest arrows. She is articulate, she is a human rights activist in many media and she has opted out of the Hollywood talented-actress-to-superficial-screw-up metamorphosis, which is astoundingly rare. Anyways, I digress; just over a month ago, there was a breach of security of Lawrence's iCloud account, where she had nude photos stored. Without spending too much time deciding whose fault it was for the nude photos being leaked, the hacker's for leaking the photos or Lawrence's for having taken them in the first place, these photos were meant to be secret. And that secret getting out, judging by her lack of public appearance for an entire month, had very real consequences which Lawrence must now contemplate how to face.

Readers, you and I tend to get so wrapped up in the idea that having someone else's secret empowers us and puts the subject of the secret at a disadvantage. The same secret that empowered the blogger degraded lLawrence. The same secret that empowered Edward Snowden ameliorated a nation,s confidence in the leaders there to keep them safe. In a nutshell, a secret is a form of story; as one of my favorite authors, Chimamanda Adichie (who penned a New York Times bestseller titled Americanah and whose TEDTalk can be found here) said, "stories can be used to malign a [person], but they can also be used to empower them."

I'm about to make myself vulnerable to illustrate this point. I am a closeted gay high school/soon-to-be college student-athlete. You're probably saying to yourself, okay? What gives? Well, I say closeted because that means that you are among the select few that know my secret. If any one of you were to send an email to the kid who I've sat next to in classes for three hours a day for the last three school years telling him I liked dudes, he would be in for quite a shock. The teammates I've changed next to in locker rooms for years would also be quite surprised (probablyn less from the fact that I'm gay and more because I haven't found them attractive enough to hit on). In that sense, you have a lot of dirt on me. You have power. Go ahead, feel good about that.

This story I have just shared with you is just one dimension, or story, of the many of which I am comprised. Your wielding of that power could cause rather sobering social challenges for me to face. That being said, I feel a significant burden has been lifted knowing that I'm not continuing a practice I call "untruthing" (not lying, but not being forthcoming with people because I haven't been ready until now). The people who lay eyes on this blog are the only people in my life who I have totally "truthed" to. Stated alternatively, you will be the first people in my life who I have not untruthed to. I trust you. I find that pretty empowering, and I hope you do too.