InterVarsity?s ?No Secrets Booth? allowed SDSU students to anonymously post their secrets on the tent?s walls.

Everyone has a secret. Some keep their secrets buried deep inside. However, San Diego State students had the option to pin their secrets to a tent on Campanile Walkway, for thousands of peers to read.

For the second year in a row, the student organization InterVarsity hosted a “No Secrets” booth earlier this month. At the tent, students were invited to anonymously write secrets on a scrap of paper then slip it into a box. Students could also post their secrets on the tent walls. These brightly colored confessions drew hundreds of students last week.

Some came to read out of pure curiosity. Others came to write.

One read, “I still wish I had committed suicide at 15,” and “I’ve been abandoned by two families and I feel like an orphan,” was scrawled on another. Abortion was a recurring confession on the tent walls.

The notes shocked many students.

“It’s crazy,” Victor Aguilar, a criminal justice junior said. “You see people walking around &- everybody looks normal, but you don’t know what they’re holding in.”

Kimi Noltensmeier, a liberal studies senior, agreed.

“It’s sad to see everything that’s inside of people,” Noltensmeier said. “I feel like people are super brave for even writing these.”

Beau Crosetto is the team leader of InterVarsity. Although there is no affiliation, Crosetto said the idea was loosely modeled after PostSecret, a blog that allows people to anonymously confess their secrets.

The PostSecret blog has received more than 377 million views, according to its website. The PostSecret Facebook page has more than 870,000 fans.

According to Crosetto, the website appeals to people’s voyeuristic tendencies, but the “No Secrets” booth was about more than the opportunity to write a secret.

“It’s one thing to get your secrets out,” Crosetto said. “It’s another to find freedom from them.”

Tori Haynes is a journalism sophomore and Pi Beta Phi sorority member. She joined Greek InterVarsity last year. For Haynes, her faith and Greek InterVarsity were instrumental in finding that freedom.

“There are a lot of things that go on in the Greek world that people don’t understand unless they’re in it,” Haynes said. “I was definitely struggling … Even though I got involved with Greek InterVarsity to help other people, I did it for myself too, so I could stay rooted.”

Crosetto said the idea behind InterVarsity is to increase dialogue among students with diverse beliefs &- or even none at all.

The group is also passionate about serving the community. Every Monday, InterVarsity students tutor refugee children at Herbert Ibarra Elementary School in City Heights. It also partners with Hope in the City, a nonprofit organization providing support services to the economically disadvantaged community of City Heights.

Because of its popularity, the “No Secrets” booth will likely be back for a third year, according to Crosetto.

For Haynes, reading some of the secrets was a wake-up call.

“Some of the stuff is really heavy duty … There has to be more than this,” she said, gesturing at the posted secrets.

InterVarsity meets at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday at The Backdoor. Greek InterVarsity meets at 8:30 p.m. every Wednesday at Zeta Beta Tau.