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I remember being in grade school, and there was this girl who always had these out landish stories. At first it was like "Wow! You have the coolest parents and older sister!" Then the stories started to repeat some and there were always changes. Being me, of course I would ask her questions about why all the changes. She didn't like me much after that. It never occurred to me that she was lying and she was just making up stories all this time. My parents never lied to me, and we didn't lie to my parents. They always knew the truth anyway.

I thought to myself "why would anyone lie about such stupid things?" I could never really grasp this concept. Now that I am an adult, I know why people lie.

People lie to be to accepted.
People lie to feel better about themselves.
People lie because they want other people to envy them.
People lie to fit in and be cool.
People lie because they want to get their way.
People lie because they learn to lie in certain situations.
People lie because they don't want to get caught.
People lie to hurt other people.
People lie just to hear themselves talk.
People lie out of fear of facing who they really are.
People lie because that is their control over other people.
People lie because they don't want to let you in.
People lie because they don't want you to know the truth inside of them.
People lie to turn other people against each other.
People lie so other people won't be upset with them about the truth.

I have now in my life learned all about people who lie. You find them everywhere. They work with you, they live with you sometimes, and more often then not, you have dumped a person who lies, and that is the reason why you broke up with them in the first place.

I have also learned that when you have a parent that lies that they will have a child that lies as well. I once had a friend who would like about the stupidest things. Like repeating a story and adding all kinds of things that were never said. I asked this person why they would make up such stories and make it sound like these things happened when they really didn't. They told me "My mother always told stories like that, so I thought that is what you do. You make stuff up to make the story interesting or to make the other person lean towards your side."

I was floored!

I know we sometimes use action or big words in a story, for the most part the story is the same.

Broken promises are lies to me as well. There are people I know and they would promise me the world on a silver and diamond platter. But all their promises were a bunch of empty words. I told them that if they weren't going to do something that was fine, but don't tell me something and not do it. They told me that their parents would promise them things, and never went through with it. So a promise to them is something to pacify someone and not really mean anything. It is like saying hello to someone just to be nice.

This is not how I was raised. And I can tell when someone is lying to me. But unless I have to really be around that person for work or what not. I won't hang around them. Who really likes to hang around a liar? I guess that is why they have a high turn over rate of friends.

Learn more about this author, A. Joerger.
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