…But you can’t tell anyone!

The factors that made me write this post are many, but mostly because of a very recent event that kind of shocked me because it is so not like him…We just got back from spring break. I had this thoughtful idea of surprising my parents and grandmother. She hadn’t been feeling good recently so I decided to go home and see her. I had it all planned out! My brother picking me up and me traveling the next day to my hometown. First I would pick up flowers and go at my grandma’s, then I would show up at my mom’s work and surprise her too. It took me two days to come up with reasons why I wasn’t going to go home and several skype calls to sell it to my parents. Finally they got convinced and understood that “very important matter” that had to keep me at school for the whole spring break week. So, I tell my brother the plan and also where and when to pick me up.  

The second I arrived and jumped in the car he makes a phone call and hands me the phone saying: “-Here, talk to mom, she was worried about the trip…” Well, you can imagine my reaction. That exact moment after a “thank you deeply” look, I thought I can still make it to surprise grandma… The second I pull the phone closer to my ear, not only did I hear my mom’s excited voice but also grandma’s, uncles’, aunties’, and all the possible cousins within 100 km radius back home. Nobody in my family,  apparently can’t quite keep a secret. When asked my brother why did he tell them, I swear he said : “They asked me…”

If it wasn’t for his double-mine height…

The thing is that keeping secrets is not an issue for men only (mostly because they forget that it was one in the first place), it is also a big deal to women too. The second you say it out loud that is a secret, suddenly creates an urge to share and spread it out there in all possible chat corners and in little bags of added and exaggerated details. Women are very good at restraining themselves and appreciating that you chose her to share that very “uncommon” thing…

Restrain…well , we consider ourselves  great secret keepers. The safest box to lock your secret. I mean it, but if you ever hear a word from our best friend, or our best friend’s friend, or our cousins who live in Japan, or our mom’s friend’s daughter in Spain, or that other girl whose name I can’t remember but who liked my dress,or the canteen lady, or whomever close to us that night in the club…THAT WASN’T US! I don’t know how they got to know!

Secrets are the worst! Not only give you that responsibility of being a safeguard of “a huge” matter but they also trigger this involuntary feeling of coming up with alibis in case it ever gets public! 

Advice: If you really don’t want anything to get out there and reach crowds you don’t want to know, stop telling people it’s a secret ! Talk about it as a random thing that could have happened to anyone. The chances of it being so common are extremely high anyways, just like the chances of the listeners ignoring it till their turn comes to share theirs.

Now….. shhhhhhh! Don’t tell anybody I ever wrote this! It’s a SECRET!