Secrets grow in the dark like mold. Bring them into the light and watch them shrink.

A secret gets most of its power from being imagined rather than seen. In the dark it grows, gathers weight, becomes the biggest fact about you, and your estimate of how people would react keeps inflating because nothing ever tests it. Said out loud it is usually smaller and more ordinary than the version in your head. The shrinking happens on contact with air.

Choose the safest person you know and tell them one true thing this week. Not a broadcast, one person. If what you are carrying involves being hurt or being in danger, tell an adult who can act on it, because that is not gossip.