I started wondering why people do that. I thought about myself and the questions I answer with lies. Questions like:
How are you liking teaching?
How do you like where you're living?
How are you?
And lies like this:
Oh, it's great.
It's a good place.
Good, how are you?
Okay, sometimes those are the truth, but a lot of the time they are not. As I was talking through this with some people close to me, I wanted to figure out why we tell those lies. Why did I start answering questions like that? Where was that habit rooted?
I realized that most recently it came from the reactions I would get from people as I was giving honest answers to those questions.
I told the truth and then started noticing a pattern in the reactions I was getting from people. They were surprised (read: uncomfortably shocked) that I didn't LOVE teaching and that I wasn't raving about how prepared I felt and how easy it came to me. Every time I said something other than "GREAT!" about where I lived or how I was, those I was talking to become visibly uncomfortable. Often pining to change the subject.
I suppose subconsciously I decided that people didn't want to hear how teaching was really going. Or what I actually felt like that day. I don't know what they wanted but they didn't want to be uncomfortable so I started changing my answers to the short ones seen above.
And it worked! No one was ever uncomfortable again! Kidding. But people stopped giving me that look that says, "pleasestoptalkingpleasestoptalkingpleasestoptalking."
You know the look.
Instead they nodded politely, as if pleased with how content we both were lying to each other. So here is some not lying for you.
Sometimes I really don't like my job and I really don't want to go to work.
Sometimes I get frustrated with my house and that it doesn't have what I think I need.
And sometimes I'm sad/mad/irate/frustrated/annoyed.
But so is everyone else, and so are you, and you should just stop making that uncomfortable face and say something nice to people who tell you the truth.
