I believe in the power of telling the truth. Telling the truth is something that we are taught to do at a very young age. It’s the difference between right and wrong. But how can something so simple, and so drilled into our lives, sometimes be so hard?
During my junior year at Penn State my friends and I thought it would be fun to stay in, watch a move, and have a wine night. We all put on our pajamas, started making home-made mac and cheese and chocolate chip cookies, and went through Netflix to pick out a movie to watch. What could go wrong?
We had just poured our wine into cups, and without even taking one sip we hear a knock on the door.
None of us thought sipping on wine, baking cookies, and watching movies in our pajamas could be a problem. None of us thought of the fact that we were living on campus and drinking in the dorms is not allowed.
At first we all thought it was a joke. How could we get in trouble for something like this? How could we get written up for being in matching pajama sets that look like something a toddler would wear? But the R.A. took our ids and names, and told us housing would be in contact with us soon.
One by one we were called in to tell our version of the story. There were fifteen of us that got caught. Fifteen girls who decided, “If no one says it was their wine they can not punish all of us”. But the thought of going with the groups’ story weighed heavier and heavier on me throughout the week. I was always told telling the truth, even if it means getting in trouble, is better than lying.
Going into my meeting, and after talking it over with my parents, I decided to tell the truth. I told the head of housing my side of the story. I said that my friends and I got together in our pajamas for a wine, movie, and baking night. I told him how we had just poured the wine into cups when the RA came. I told him that I was planning on drinking the wine but hadn’t yet because of the timing. I told him the truth.
While some of my friends lied and told the fake story to get out of trouble, to this day I am happy I told the truth. I wound up having to take a 3-hour decision-making class while my friends did not have to do anything. But, because I told the truth I felt so much better about myself then having to sit with this lie on my conscience.
I still think of this experience as a learning lesson. I learned its ok to go against the group. I learned that doing the right thing and telling the truth in the long run is the better option. I think if more people were less scared of getting in trouble more people would tell the truth too.
And this is why I believe in telling the truth.