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Her story resonated with me mainly due to how similar her experiences were to my childhood. Due to how strict my parents were, I also grew up lying as a way for me to protect myself in case I did something wrong. At first, these lies would merely be minor offenses such as not brushing my teeth, but it escalated to the point where my lies were too unrealistic. Eventually, my parents were fed up and gave me a sermon regarding my lies, helping me realize the severity of my actions, which made me stop lying.

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This essay is not only relevant to my personal story but also to others as well through social media: the cornerstone of distorting one's reality through fake news and content manipulation. Nowadays, people on social media often try to show the best sides of themselves on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to gain recognition. Most of the photos and videos they post are usually edited and enhanced to create a narrative that they're living the ideal and luxurious lifestyle. This constant search for attention through lying would only be detrimental to these people as it creates this perpetual cycle of lying to oneself about who we truly are.

Christine Ongpin-Montes' story serves as a lesson for all of us that we must face reality, no matter how harsh it may seem. While it may seem a large hurdle to overcome, it is a necessary step to have an authentic and fulfilling life.

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Reality is sometimes difficult to grasp; throughout our lives, we often encounter things that are too overwhelming to handle. Oftentimes, these situations are things outside our control, and the inability to do anything to overturn them creates this sense of powerlessness we seek to escape from. This sad aspect of reality is perfectly reflected in Christine Ongpin-Montes' "To Tell You the Truth," wherein she recounts how she lived out her childhood life using lies.

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The author explains her entire childhood through chronological events with intermissions of insights she acquired as a fully grown adult. In the first half of the story, the author, or the persona, is portrayed as a cheerful yet mischievous young girl who loves getting attention and recognition from other people. At a very young age, all of the instances the author recounted had this trend where she would often lie about specific events to manipulate things in her favor; she used lying as a tool. For example, in the second paragraph of her story, the author lied to her second-grade school teacher that she needed to be dismissed as soon as possible because of her swimming competition, with the added measure of it being broadcasted live on television. Due to the lie, not only did the teacher dismiss the author early, but the teacher also bragged about it to her colleagues, which indirectly made the author popular due to the news of her swimming spreading in her school. Similarly, another instance mentioned by the author is when she lied about her birthday so that she would be allowed to wear her favorite red dress during the Sunday mass to stand out among the ones who wore the correct dress code. Interestingly, despite how deliberate and frequent her lies are, she did not initially feel any guilt about her actions, as seen in the first few sentences of the essay: "I grew up lying. At second-grade, I realized that being an expert liar was not something I could feel guilty about."

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However, the premise and narrative behind why she lies changed around the second half of her story where she is now portrayed differently as a "young girl desperately in need of recognition, stability, and solace." The author mentioned that she used lies to essentially make up her world by creating different versions of her family, friends, and herself. The author would often compare the fantasy world she created to her actual life, and the conclusion that she would usually arrive at is the fact that her alternate world is more fun. It was also around this point that the author would specifically mention the complexities of her childhood when it comes to her family, particularly her relationship with her mother. As the text gets more specific with how burdening and straining the author's childhood was, it became clear, and later on confirmed by the author, that lying became a coping mechanism for her to deal with her harsh reality. The reason why it was so easy for her to lie in the first place is that it became her unconscious effort to simplify her situation and escape from reality; through lying, she was able to enjoy her childhood. Unfortunately, the comfort she received from her lies disappeared when she read her mother's diary, citing entries of her hardships and struggles as a single parent. The author gained a reality check and realized that she cannot run away from reality, which I believe is the main message the essay is trying to convey. Her story shows that no matter how hard we try to be in denial of our situation, it doesn't change the fact that we are still wholly affected by it.