by Leeann Heffernan

Created on: March 28, 2009

Cheating.

What is cheating? Is there really a way to define 'cheating?' Well the most common definition you think of when you hear 'cheating' is doing something physical with another individual while being in a relationship with another person. Society has put this image in all of our minds that people who cheat are bad and that cheating is bad. This is when we get into the definition of lying. Lying and cheating are each others best friends. Lying is being dishonest, not telling the truth..blah blah. We all know. Back to cheating. Cheating isn't right, no, and we know that, but isn't there two sides to every story? Do you know how the person who cheated really feels? Do you know what made them do that?

'Cheater'; someone who cheats. Is this really a fair label to give anyone? Before you get married and you are filling out an application for something is has these options; single, married, divorced, widowed. It doesn't say 'dating'. So is it really all that wrong to play the field? I guess you just have to make it clear in your partners eyes that you are going into this relationship very open and you will see where it goes over time. Sometimes, people cheat because they know its almost over, the chemistry just isn't there anymore, but they don't know how to break it off with the other person, they don't want to hurt them. Like me, for instance. I was dating someone for over a year and things were getting serious. I than realised this wasn't what I wanted, I'm young. He was such a nice guy, but I had eyes for someone else. I snuck around with that 'someone else' and than broke it off with my partner. Seeing how hurt he was by me breaking it off, I couldn't bear to tell him I had cheated. Well, as fate would have it, one of my close friends and I had a fight and she told him that I had cheated and was dating the guy. My ex confronted me and said that he didn't believe her because he knew that I wasn't that heartless. Am I really heartless though? I know myself better than anyone and I know I'm not. I had a slip, a mistake, but I don't regret it because it lead me to the love of my life and I am so much more happier now more than anyone would ever know.

After you cheat and it becomes public, you get looked at as if you are dirt ( and as if you don't already feel that way). They don't know the story. They were not in your position, and they don't know who you are or anything about you, all they know is you cheated and lied. No one knows what lead you to those measures. They don't know how controlling the person you cheated on was. A controlling relationship can't work. A controlling boyfriend is just as bad as cheating. Someone telling you how to live, what you are going to do and who you can be around, is a jealous and manipulative person. You don't hear people gossiping about that though. He doesn't get labelled a bad person because he is controlling, but you get labeled for ending the relationship the wrong way. So is there a right what to define cheating? Is it ever okay? Are you really a bad person if you cheat?

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