“Is it better to speak or die?” the knight asks the princess in one part of a series of stories known as the Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549).
“It is better to speak,” says the princess. But the knight does no such thing.
Haven’t we all felt ourselves faced with a similar situation? Maybe not “speak or die” in the literal sense of death, but figuratively, it can quite easily feel as though if we did say what was truly on our minds, we would be even worse off than death. Words may be at the tip of our tongue, but something always holds us back from saying what we mean to. This may explain why many of us, when reminiscing on past-loves and relationships, can come up with a handful of statements or questions that we wish we would have said at the time, but inevitably chose not to.
This is where the Unsent Project comes into play. Self-described as “A Collection Of Unsent Text Messages To First Loves,” the Unsent project’s mission is to do just that: collect millions of messages that were crafted, but never delivered.
Submitting your own message is simple: simply pick a color from their selection of 33 that reminds you of whoever your message is about, and start typing. There’s a “to:” line if you’re feeling ambitious, but that can easily be left blank as well. After you’re done sending your own thoughts out into the world, you can browse through the over four million other submissions that have been collected over the years. Users are able to filter the messages by color or content, with the comments being searchable by key word or by name. With that, some people have been able to find submissions that look a little too related to one another, and there’s an entire merchandise line centered around these pairings.
Whether you’re looking to get something off your chest or are simply curious about the words of heartbroken strangers displayed in an aesthetically pleasing layout, the Unsent Project has something for everyone.
And, who knows, maybe there’s one already there written about you?