First Day Hum Drums

Today was the first day of the Winter School Quarter at Cal State LA. I'm usually not excited about the first day of school and today was no exception. Today marked the end of winter recess. I am how ever usually excited about the second time I meet for any particular class, unless its seems like its going to be a boring class, and so far that's not the case. Day one has ensured me that I have a quarter full of art work to from the creative corners and creases of my brain. Before the syllabi were passed out we played a game in my Creative Development class. You may or may not have heard or played this. One by one we stood up and stated our name and three statements about ourselves to the rest of the class. The kicker is that only two statements were supposed to be true and the other one false. My statements were...

1. I am a native Southern Californian

2. I speak three languages.

3. I have a younger brother that is 19 years younger than I am.

I have played this game before both on paper and in live action. But I didn't realize how good I had gotten at it. An overwhelming amount of the class thought that the first statement was false, but little did they know I've lived in Southern California my whole life, aside from my freshman year in college when I lived in the dorms of an Oregon community College. I personally was shocked because the one thing about me that has always been true and never changed about me was the one easiest to dismiss as an untruth. But the bigger question is if that's a compliment, to have transcended the identity of a Southern California in a world that is become more and more a global society each day. The second most popular answer of mine that was voted as an untruth was that my youngest brother isn't 19 years younger than me. There was some brief discussion and the debate focused on the specifics of the age difference. "Your younger brother isn't 19 years younger than you he's 17 years younger" the teacher Mr. Moss jokingly stated. But again he and the other voters of this statement as a non-truth were wrong. The one statement that was completely false, I don't think anyone guess correctly. It's a goal of mine to speak at least three languages, but as of today, I only speak one. 

"You are a very good liar"

Hesitantly I thanked him, as to add some humor to a slightly awkward situation. I didn't think to much of it at first but as my own silence set in. I personally made a conscious decision to tell the truth a few years ago, at all times, avoiding even simple lies because I had in truth become good at lying. Later in class I was reassured that the little white lies were told were evidence of each students personal persuasive power.  That same persuasive power is what gets us the job, gets us out of a ticket, gets us one step closer to being the individual that we'd all like to be.