Visit the PostSecret blog, and you'll see decorative postcards sharing all kinds of personal revelations:

Surrounding an image of the Cheshire Cat appear the typed words, "My fancy college is a freakin' sweet place for a total klepto like me."

"I try to leave my car in places where it can watch sunsets," written with a white-out pen in neat print around a picture of a glowing orange sunset, a car gazing on.

A collage of animals – a tiger, a gorilla – and meat products – a burger, a steak. The text reads, "Every time I go to the zoo, I just think about how each animal would taste."

These secrets exist because of Frank Warren, although he is not the artist behind the postcard creations. Last week, the Students Events Board brought Warren to campus. In front of a packed crowd in the University Center Ballroom (and an overflow room watching on a screen), Warren shared his history and insights with UMBC students and community members. "My name is Frank," he said by way of introduction, "and I collect secrets."

Warren's idea of gathering people's hidden thoughts, memories and feelings on postcards began as a community art project in D.C., and grew into a phenomenon. Now Warren receives postcards from all over the world – about 1,000 a week. And secrets aren't all written on postcards. Warren said he's received secrets on a hotel keycard, fruits and vegetables, X-Rays, surgical gloves, a $50 bill, a balloon, a Rubik's cube, and a bag of coffee ("Where I work, for some reason they don't keep inventory…" explained the coffee).

All told, now Warren is something of a celebrity. Secrets sent to him were used in an All-American Rejects video, and he's published four books of compiled secrets. At UMBC, he was likeable and conversational on stage, but his discussion had a rehearsed feel that served as a reminder: Frank Warren is an ordinary guy working in the role of hero/therapist/guru.

Warren, who reads and keeps every postcard he receives, understands that an intense "relationship of trust" exists between him and the secret-senders. Rather than feeling daunted, Warren is optimistic about his project, and takes issue with insinuation that PostSecret is sappy or self-indulgent. The healing, transformative power of writing down a secret and sending it away, setting it free – this is the core of Post Secret's appeal, believes Warren. The journey of secrets fascinates him, and he often leaves the mailing barcodes, a sign of the secrets' travels, on the postcards he selects for display on his blog (despite complaints from blog readers). The expression, word choice, and visual creativity on many of the cards Warren receives remind him of poetry.

Visitors to the PostSecret blog develop a sense of community, Warren said. We see ourselves in the secrets of others, become more tolerant, and feel less alone. (This community bonded through the PostSecret blog to donate $30,000 to 1-800-SUICIDE, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, when it was in financial trouble.)

Simply put, to Warren, sharing is beautiful. One postcard he highlighted for the audience was a person's silly story of misunderstanding the adult world (namely, a birth control device) in childhood. The end of message read, "I have never shared this with anyone." The card moved Warren because the author hid a memory so endearing and relatable for so long. Of course, some secrets are less fraught with emotional weight than others. Warren highlighted one card displaying a ClipArt image of a group of people working, the author admitting that he or she reveled in going each day to an office full of religious coworkers sans underwear. ClipArt, Warren said, would never be the same.

Stories about why people didn't send postcards also intrigue Warren. One woman sent him an e-mail explaining that she wrote her secret on a postcard, faced the secret, and tore up the postcard then and there, promising herself never to live with the secret again. A girl made and wore a t-shirt to reveal her eating disorder to her peers, finding courage, strength and support in the process. After his discussion, Warren opened the floor, and members of the UMBC community spoke aloud secrets of their own.

But, shhh. Those are some secrets I'm not going to share.

PostSecret is updated each Sunday with a new collection of postcards. Visit http://postsecret.blogspot.com/.

Due to restrictions, The Retriever Weekly was unable to take pictures at this event.