On occasion, particularly if I am feeling a little childish, when asked what I do for work I have said I am a Professional Secret Keeper and Legal Drug Dealer. The second part is probably fairly obvious. I prescribe people medication, some of which would have a street value if you decided to sell them, and what I do is legal.
The first part of my silly job title is a reference to Harry Potter. In the books, when using a Fidelius Charm, someone can be made a keeper of the secret location of a place, and only that person can know or reveal the location. I call myself a professional secret keeper because people tell me their most personal secrets as part of my job. While no magic is involved in my work, it is still a privilege to be trusted with their secrets.
I love keeping secrets, and I tend to think I am rather good at it. Over the years, I have been told or discovered some really juicy tidbits from family and friends and even total strangers. If you would like to read a few of the more salacious secrets I have been entrusted with, keep scrolling to the bottom of this post 
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There is something about the trust someone places in you which makes secret keeping so exciting. To have someone tell you something personal or hurtful or harmful and trust you to keep it safe is a real honour.
But for me being a secret keeper is more than just a privilege, it is a thrill as well. Knowing something which other people around you do not can be a real source of superiority over others. It might sound snobby to say so, but having a feeling of superiority can be great, providing of course it is something you keep to yourself. People who are privy to a secret and then go bragging about it to tease others without telling them the secret are the worst, but those who enjoy the warm glow of a new secret in private, they're OK with me.
Of course when there are secrets, there may come the time when the information is shared more widely (ideally with the consent of the secretee of course). Added to the glow of knowing the secret in the first place, having the chance to reveal the information can be just as much fun. When it came to telling our family we are expecting a baby, I had run through a dozen different scenarios for revealing it, from grand build ups with music to simply dropping it into normal conversation. Revealing the secret, or indeed just admitting you already knew the secret once it has become more widely known, can be just as much fun as keeping the secret to begin with.
All this is not to say being a keeper of secrets is always fun and games. Sometimes, intentionally or otherwise, you discover something or are told something you would rather not know, or else someone discovers you are aware of a secret and tries to hold that against you. Sometimes you can even find yourself in an odd situation like the one I was in the other day where a family member was telling me about an event I knew all about because I had been in attendance, but for confidentiality reasons I could not say so. Far from the most challenging scenario, it was still an odd position to be in.
Being a professional secret keeper plays to my strengths. I do think I am good at keeping secrets, and to get paid for the privilege to boot is a bonus! My latest Jigsaws 
with Jamie video is all about mystery and secrets (OK, I grant you that is a bit of a tenuous link). If you want to listen to me twaddle on about mystery puzzles, dolphins, turtles and more, then click the link below.
Did you really think I would tell you all the deepest secrets I keep? Did I not just tell you I am good at keeping secrets…? Go on, head back up and finish reading the post! 
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