If anything, I hate being phony. I mean there are instances wherein I need to be polite and such. But for me, that’s being phony when you are being polite to someone you actually want to push down a cliff!

It isn’t a problem in my case really. My face is transparent. It shows my emotions. When I was a kid, every Christmas, my mom’s aunt would give us gifts. I was always afraid to open it in front of them because I knew if I didn’t like the gift, it would show in my reaction. And it did. One time, I got a towel. Imagine a 10-year-old kid getting a towel for Christmas. What would your reaction be? I was disappointed I wanted to cry! I wanted something appropriate for my age. A stationery set would have made me happy. Or a cute notebook will do. They saw me getting upset over the towel that since then I dreaded opening gifts in front of the giver.

Those situations to me called for being polite but in my mind I was being phony. So sad.