I conducted an experiment in high school.
When I was a senior, my friends and I played a game. We had to answer the question:
“Who are you?”
However, there were two rules.
1: You had to put your answer on a sticky note.
2: It had to be anonymous, so you could be fully yourself without any judgment.
Word got around, and more people started doing this. I soon began receiving random sticky notes from people who wanted to participate as well.
We decided to hang the submissions up in a room in the school so others could see.
I was expecting people to talk about their future careers, their personalities, or their hobbies.
But a lot of answers went much deeper than that. Many people used this opportunity as a way to show how they were really feeling and to share thoughts that had been on their minds.
I truly didn’t think this would turn into such a powerful moment, but I got the chills once everything was set up and I started reading through every single note.
Above is some old footage from when we were hanging them up, along with a sneak peek at a few of the submissions (some of them are pretty intense).
The lesson I learned: Be kind to others. You never know what people are going through.