Spilling the beans

Can you keep a secret? How long will it take you to explode? Are you the trustworthy type who knows how to keep your mouth shut or are you the blabber mouth who itches to tell the next available person?

I wouldn’t call myself a saint but I can be pretty good at keeping secrets. I do set standards for secrets - if it means hurting a friend, forget it. But if no one is going to suffer, then I might not be quite so discreet. If someone specifically tells me “This is a secret. Please don’t tell anyone”, I will respect that person’s wishes. It’s those juicy gossips that I find quite hard to resist :). I guess that’s normal for girls. But don’t be surprised; nowadays guys are into gossiping too, no?

It’s also normal that we trust our friends at different levels. Not all the close friends will know a particular secret. It depends on how personal the secret is and how open the friend may be. If the secret is huge and you are the only one told about it, the burden can be too much to bear. There’s that sense of suspense and excitement and you feel you have to share it with another person, just so that you can discuss about it. The tension can be so high that sometimes you even wish you didn't know about the secret in the first place. But on the other hand, it’s actually quite an honor to be the only one entrusted with the information. So better not breach that trust.

Don’t be disheartened if you are not told about something or you were only told about it at a later stage. There’s always a reason for things. Understand that your friend was probably in a tough situation at the time. Maybe there wasn’t a right moment or they weren’t ready or were trying to find the right words to tell you. So relax and don’t pressure.

Yes, we all know that a secret means not telling anyone but do remember that some secrets are good and some can be bad. Be smart to know which ones are worth telling people about.