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What are the events recounted in the essay? Who are the people involved?

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How are the events narrated? Are there flashbacks or foreshadowing in the essay? What perspective(s) is/are presented in the retelling of the author's experience(s)?

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How would you describe the author as portrayed in the essay?

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What do you think is the essay trying to say? What is its message?

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What do you think the short story/poem/essay tells us about the world? How is our world reflected in and by this short story/poem/essay?

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Do you think that your chosen text is relevant to the world today? Why or why not?

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What are your personal thoughts, comments, and reactions to the short story/poem/essay you chose? In what ways does your chosen text resonate with you?

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The essay unfolds the author’s childhood experiences in a way that narrates the specific events as well as reflects on the deep-rooted struggles that motivated the situations retold. It narrated specific and detailed situations that provided the context of the author’s reflection and conclusion towards the end. Centralizing the theme of dishonesty, it depicts the progression of the author’s compulsive lying, its manifestations on her home life, and its impact on her upbringing.

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Most of the time, however, the lies I created only involved me.

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Most of the time, however, the lies I created only involved me.

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The events which were recounted mostly involved the key people of the author’s childhood which are her elementary school teachers, classmates, and her family members. These people were either directly or indirectly affected by the author’s lies but in a way, they are all integral to her recollection of her past.

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I realize that even these lies can be an alchemy of the self.

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I realize that even these lies can be an alchemy of the self.

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The essay was written from two perspectives-- from the author's present self and from her younger self. It presents the view of someone who is reflecting on a theme that had played a significant role in her character development. It shows the sentiments of someone who had gone through a journey of personal growth which led her to being capable of self-actualization. Since the author is at the standpoint of a now established woman free from the grasp of her past, the events presented could be considered as mere flashbacks or recollections of her early childhood.

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All it took was a little imagination to make something up; a strong personal conviction that I was telling the truth and the world could be mine.

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All it took was a little imagination to make something up; a strong personal conviction that I was telling the truth and the world could be mine.

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As previously mentioned, at the very beginning of the essay it was already established that it will circle around the theme of lying and dishonesty. Even though it detailed experience after experience in a progressing manner, its narration is more episodic rather than chronological. This is because the pattern illustrated by these events were much more relevant than the time and date of which these occurred.

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Did I lose my innocence the minute I realized the truth about my lying? Did I then cut my own childhood short? It is said that lying deprives ourselves of a part of our lives. But then again, lying felt like it connected me to who I truly was: a young girl desperately in need of recognition, stability and solace.

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Did I lose my innocence the minute I realized the truth about my lying? Did I then cut my own childhood short? It is said that lying deprives ourselves of a part of our lives. But then again, lying felt like it connected me to who I truly was: a young girl desperately in need of recognition, stability and solace.

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As pointed out throughout the essay, the author was indeed a compulsive liar during her younger years. Be that as it may, her lies did not originate from a certain propaganda that the author’s younger self wanted to execute, rather, it stemmed from her own dissatisfaction and discomfort with the realities of her family situation. Furthermore, her younger self was portrayed as someone who was not given much attention in school and in her home, and so she used these lies to create an alternate reality where her life was relevant enough to be noticed.

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Tell me what your lies are and I shall tell you who you are.

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Tell me what your lies are and I shall tell you who you are.

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At such a young age, the author was already exposed to the struggles of their family with regards to their financial situation and standard of living which deprived her of her innocence at such a young age. These past experiences seem to have positively manifested into her development seeing that she was able to piece together the fragments of her younger self into becoming a version of herself that she now learned to accept.

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There is a truth behind every lie that belongs only to the one who tells it.

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There is a truth behind every lie that belongs only to the one who tells it.

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As the author recounted her past bittersweet relationship with lying, it all boiled down to the concluding theme of self-acceptance. Indeed, it is easier to create a fantasy where your life is exactly what you want it to be. However, at one point in the sea of these lies you might find yourself losing who you really are. At the end of the day, these lies only unravel the truth that you are yearning for something more, and that you can actually use this desire to drive you to move forward.

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I suppose now I know what I didn’t then: my lies saved me from my own childhood.

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I suppose now I know what I didn’t then: my lies saved me from my own childhood.

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Acceptance really is a paradoxical concept.  Especially for a child like the author’s younger self, how do you even accept a reality that you did not create? How do you make peace with something you could not control? How do you find it in yourself to live with the struggles that already came with your existence? It is at that point of early consciousness that you learn how to create your own reality. It does not mean that you have to dwell in joy or romanticize your situation, simply accepting means that you finally see things for what they are. And from then, you move forward.

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My alter-life after school, for example, was an unconscious escape from the heaviness of the situation at home.

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My alter-life after school, for example, was an unconscious escape from the heaviness of the situation at home.

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Nowadays, it’s fairly easy to judge others for how we see them at a surface level. “To Tell You the Truth” depicts how there is always a deeper context as to how people act the way they do. Our world has drastically changed in the past two years and the way we adapted to these changes differed from one another. Therefore, the essay is relevant to the world today because it illustrates how we must always show empathy and compassion towards other people. After all, we are all just trying to survive our own harsh realities one day at a time.

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So long as I wasn’t me, I was safe and happy.

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So long as I wasn’t me, I was safe and happy.

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We reject reality when it does not fall in our favor. For some, it is an act of denial. For others, it might just be because of plain ignorance. The essay tells us that for people like the author, rejecting reality was the only way to find comfort and solace. The essay mirrors the world in the aspect that sometimes honesty is a privilege that people like the author’s younger self could not afford. She did not have the luxury to have her own five peso bill nor did she have the means to really become a swimmer, but she was able to obtain all of this through free make-believe. It shows the paradox of escapism and innocence in a way that one fantasizes because she is innocent yet one escapes because she is aware.

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There are moments when I still wish I were anyone but me, but little by little, I am learning to shake the truths out of myself and I expect only the truth and nothing but the truth—no matter how absurd, shattering, ugly, and painful.

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There are moments when I still wish I were anyone but me, but little by little, I am learning to shake the truths out of myself and I expect only the truth and nothing but the truth—no matter how absurd, shattering, ugly, and painful.

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I particularly chose this essay because it hits too close to home. This set of lines struck me the most because I resonate with the author’s sentiments of desperately wanting to create an alternate reality to be able to view my life the way I could understand it. I agree that it was a long journey of accepting and loving myself the way I am, free from pretending and lying about who I am not. It’s inevitable to wish I was born into a different life every now and then. But just like the author, I am constantly learning to discover more of my truths and accept them no matter how absurd, shattering, ugly, and painful they are.

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Did I lose my innocence the minute I realized the truth about my lying? Did I then cut my own childhood short?

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Did I lose my innocence the minute I realized the truth about my lying? Did I then cut my own childhood short?

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It is disheartening for me to see how an 8-year old child already knew enough about the pains of the world to be desperate for something more than what she was given. It is really unfair to be born into circumstances that you did not choose for yourself, it drives us to develop an unexplainable hatred towards life. I have always felt this way whenever the things I manifest for are not being handed to me on a silver platter due to being less privileged than others. I appreciate how the author was able to overcome the very same hatred and steered her life in the direction of acceptance.