We live in a world where people lie all the time; it is the way of life, it can be for the good or bad. We lie often to cover up the truth about ourselves or others. We lie because we try to cover up pain or guilt that we may have inside. “The Ways We Lie,” an essay by Stephanie Ericson, I believe was written to entertain and inform readers on certain ways we often lie to one another.  Who doesn’t lie? I know I tell some form of a lie sometimes.

          Ericson was on the right track when she spoke about the many different ways we lie. I found that many of her scenarios seemed to be true. For example, we all tell a little white lie in order to make the situation seem a little bit better. I did that when I told my best friend she looked good in some jeans she tried on. The honest truth was that she didn’t look all that great. The only reason I told her that was to boost up her self-esteem. What was wrong with that? I was just trying to be a good friend.

        Facades are usually the lies that we wear on the outside. I agreed with Ericson on this when I realized that I was lying at a job interview I had. Most job interviews require the applicant to wear business-like attire. It isn’t every day that I dress like this but because I want a specific job, I must then lie about my personality. We can tell a lot about a person’s personality by the way they dress. So, if we aren’t normally people who wear business-like attire then this means we are definitely lying when we dress up for a job interview. This isn’t always something bad though. Ericson failed to mention that in her essay. The applicant could end up getting the job as I did, and believed me, it paid well.  I also found out that dressing in business-like attire can take a person long way.

          In fact, I honestly think that many people have lied in more than two of these forms Ericson mentioned. When people think about lies, they often tie them to being something bad. But lies can go a long way. They can take a person far as long as she knows what she is lying about and what her true intentions are.

          Lies are only good when something positive comes from them. Actors are liars. They pretend to be someone else, but it seems to be good for their audiences and for them. The audience enjoys watching them, and they enjoy getting paid to be someone other than themselves. There is no harm in that. But people don’t tend to see that. We’re only wrong when we lie if it turns out badly. Keep in mind though that lying is still dishonest and it really shouldn’t be something that we must resort to in order to get by.

          Overall, Ericson wrote a good and convincing essay. The only thing she failed to do was give the positive outcomes after giving all of the negative scenarios. This would have made her essay stronger and better. But I do agree with everything she did say. Lies were meant to be told. What would life be like if we didn’t lie every now and then, good or bad?