The Day I Revealed a Secret - Essay Sample

In families, secrets are very important for many reasons. A household, for instance, keeps its secrets away from people on the outside. Such secrets include the family wealth or a genetic disorder that runs within the family. The financial capability of a family is a particularly important reason for secrecy. There are adverse events that may follow if the family finances are exposed to the public. Kidnappers, for example, tend to hold hostage children hailing from rich families, since they know that asking for a ransom is very likely to be productive. Another secret that exists between families is relationship and bonds. The fact that people of different personality live under one roof means that there are chances of disagreements and even fallouts. However, these fallouts are detrimental to other members of the family due to the close fabric that holds the family together. For the sake of the children, parents prefer keeping their wrangles hidden to protect their children from emotional breakdown that may ensue after their fight is discovered. Although these wrangles may be known to the people outside the family, there is a need to keep them hidden from the children belonging the two warring adults.When I was seven years old, I discovered that my uncle had broken up with my aunt. Interestingly, my cousin was not aware of the breakup, since her parents used every means possible to keep it away from him. They wanted her to sit for the end-of-semester exams without any emotional challenge. Therefore, when my uncle became aware that I knew the problems in his family, he begged me to keep it away from my cousin for the sake of his exams. I managed to hold this secret from my cousin for a long time until one day. She had come to our home to collect her books that she had left during the previous vacation. We went into my room to play with the new toys and comic books that I had bought while she was away. We played with the toys for three hours until were exhausted. In the frenzy, I asked her how her parents were doing. She told me that her father went for a business conference three weeks although he had not come back. I looked at her innocent face and felt that it was wrong to keep a secret such important from my cousin. Therefore, I spilled the beans that her parents had broken up, and that her father was not in a business conference but was staying at a hotel in town.

I watched as my cousin turned gloom and her face red with anger. She told me that she has observed an unusual behavior with her mother, and she hated her for lying to her for all this time. My cousin reacted so aggressively that I began regretting why I had told her of the breakup. As she banged the door rushing to her house, I was left wondering how I would mend the situation. I felt the urge to run after her and tell her that I had made a joke, but this would not help anything. Since then, I have always learnt how to keep my secrets hidden due to their deleterious effects they can have on my friends and relatives