Challenges

1. Positioning: It was initially difficult for me to formulate this project because I wasn't sure how to position myself in the context of the project. however, once I started understanding myself on the margins, and talking to peers about my subjectivity, while having new experiences within the community, I realized that it would be hard to solicit secrets from the community that I was both learning to be a part of and new to.

2. Posting: Craigslist actually took down my first post because it contained my project email address in it, and also because I advertised in a few spots on craigslist. This was not a part of the original plan but I started to worry that not enough people would see my ads and I wanted to improve my chances of getting responses back.

2. Soliciting Secrets: I did not get a strong response from my peers until I posted the third ad. In total, I only received secrets from 10 separate email addresses, although approximately 4 of those corresponded with me many times a day for about two weeks. Their submissions make up the bulk of secrets posted.

4. My secrets: When I was coming up with the concept, I had originally writen out as many of my own secrets as I could come up with at a time. I would consult this list for inspiration every time I would receive a secret so I could send a secret of equal caliber back to the participant. What I found was, I ran out of secrets. Some respondents did not receive a response right away because I wanted to send them "fresh" secrets, or actual secrets that I had not yet shared with anybody. Usually, because of my nature, I shared these secrets with friends and peers, maybe as a way to protect myself from the perceived judgement I might receive on the advent of their discovery of my secrets.

5. judgements: When I wrote to one of my participants with my secret, they commented with distaste and disgust for my secret. I wanted to express that judgement was not a positive response to ANY secret, let alone a sensitive one. I did not know how to respond without using one of their secrets against them, so I simply made a joke instead.