Georgina, one of my closest online friends, has created a fanlisting for me. It sounds weird and conceited to say, but if you are a fan of me, please feel free to join.

Today in my dad’s car on the way to school, we were listening to an REO Speedwagon album and one of the songs that came on said something about lying. My dad started talking about lying and said some stuff that I either zoned out or just can’t remember.

I used to lie a lot when I was younger. When I was home-schooled in sixth and seventh grade, my mom would drop me off at home around noon after I finished figure skating before she left for work for the afternoon. At that point, I was expected to work on my schoolwork after I ate lunch. Instead, I would watch TV until about 2:45pm. Then I would start my work just so it would look like I had been working when my mom got home at three. There wasn’t even anything good on TV; I would just watch preschool shows all afternoon.

I would usually finish my work around five or six anyway, but I would always tell my mom that I had started right after she left. I would also lie to her about what work I had completed and what I hadn’t. On a few occasions I ended up hiding away in my room to finish some history questions while my mom was preparing my work to be mailed out. I think she knew about that, but she didn’t care as long as I got it done.

I did a ridiculous amount of lying back then. I got so used to it that it was like a daily routine to me and it didn’t phase my conscience one bit. I rarely ever lie now, except for the little white lie here and there, and I feel bad telling them. I don’t know what brought about this change, but I know I’m a better person because of it. It actually feels great to know that I am a much more honest person now than I used to be. I wish everyone were more honest. Honesty is one of the qualities I have come to value most in a person.

As much as I used to lie when I was younger, I never lied about my existence. I understand people using aliases online for privacy issues or whatever. That makes sense to me. Today though I found out about a girl online who I have reason to believe is masquerading as a completely different person, rather than simply using an alias. She seems to be pretending to be not only herself but another girl as well. I may be completely wrong, but with what I know at the moment I strongly suspect that is the case. Perhaps you will join me in asking, “what the heck?”

This may not be true for everyone, but I know that many people who blog do it at least on some subconscious level to make friends. I have mentioned in previous blogs that I love how blogging has connected me with so many people worldwide. Well I think we can all agree that friendship, at least the strongly bonded variety, is based heavily on trust. How can we trust each other if we lie to each other? If this girl is truly lying about who she is, she will never be able to make any true friends through her website. Even if her online friends never find out about her lies, they will still not be her true friends because they will not know who she truly is.

Creating a new name for yourself online is infinitely different from creating an entirely new persona.