Being Honest in High School is like Ray Charles Watching a Silent Movie

"Be true to yourself." This saying, in various incarnations, has been the backbone of human society for eons. Thoreau, Shakespeare and countless other writers and ordinary people have taken this creed to heart, and for the most part is has proven successful. However, as stated in the title, being honest in high school is like Ray Charles watching a silent movie-impractical and finally pointless. As unfortunate as this situation is, it is also very true; one person can speak well of a "friend" and lambaste him or her as soon as his or her back is turned. This troubling conflict has one positive effect, however; it allows one to learn the true value of honesty. These lessons were reinforced by the stories "The Things They Carried" and "A Dollhouse."

Naïveté is, unfortunately, one of my more prominent traits. When I entered high school in 2002, I was brimming over with grandiose fantasies and delusions of grandeur. One of these was that I was a regular Casanova and could charm any girl off her feet. I quickly discovered this was a fallacy. Much like Lt. Cross in "The Things They Carried," I would often "imagine romantic camping trips" and my sole desire (other than passing my classes, of course) was for some girl "to love [me] as [I] loved her" (1). Opposite to my wide-eyed mental concoctions, I had about as much success in this field as the Cubs did trying to win the World Series. To expound on this baseball analogy, I became extremely frustrated when all my other forlorn friends (the Red Sox and White Sox) soon had adoring girls on their arms and all I had was a sixty-ton book bag. There are a few more analogies along this line I could use to express my extreme frustration at my romantic shortfalls, but I digress.