Taking Responsibility
By Elaura, age 16, California
Lying is an unnecessary thing to do in life. It is never necessary to lie to anybody in your lifetime. If you've screwed up just face the consequences for your own actions. It is nobody else's fault but yours, so just face the mess you got yourself into. Everybody has lied before. It's true. It doesn't matter for what purpose - it is not going to fix your problems.
I use to lie constantly. I would tell a lie to cover up another lie. The worst part of my lies is that I would lie to my parents. I was always afraid to tell them the truth about what I did wrong when they asked. But, no matter what, they would always find out the truth.
I used to always ditch school, mainly my sixth period. When I ditched I would go out to eat with my boyfriend Luis. I thought I would never get caught. Somebody said I should stop before I got caught. I listened to them and stopped. About a month after I stopped ditching completely my school sent a letter to my house saying that I had excessive truants.
My parents flipped out. There was this one Tuesday when my boyfriend and I ditched the whole day. We went out to breakfast and then to the movies.
That Tuesday is the day my parents questioned the most. They didn't really care about those other six period truants. They wanted to know about that one Tuesday.
I lied instead of telling them the truth. I made something up on the spot. Stupid me thought they would believe me. I started crying in hopes that they would believe me. It didn't work this time. My parents told me that if I did not tell them the truth by the next day then they would take me out of my school and put me in a learning center.
I thought really hard that night. I came to the conclusion to tell my parents the entire truth. I went to school the next day and told Luis what I was going to do. He supported me 100%.
When I got home that day I did my homework and waited for my dad to come home. Once my dad got home I told my parents the truth. They were upset and disappointed in me, but that's normal. I then realized that it was better for me to tell them the truth than for me to lie. My parents still do not trust me. But I am glad that I was able to get over my fear of the truth.
I encourage you not to lie no matter what your situation might be. The truth will come out if you lie. It will come out even if it's tomorrow, a week, a month, or even a year. It will expose itself. Believe me, I have had many experiences with this. So please just face what you've done and take responsibility for your own actions.
