Real or Fake?

     In the book What Happened to Goodbye, by Sarah Dessen, Mclean has always been a girl who says she likes change.  After her parents got divorced and she went to live with her dad and ended up moving four times in two years!  And each time, she would create a new nickname and personality for herself.  It was only when she just recently moved and wasn't able to make a nickname that she realized she had to start living her life as herself, but found it to be very difficult.  This makes me think about being real or fake and how it affects your life.

     As I said, Mclean had always changed who she was when she moved to a new place.  For example, last time, she named herself Beth and decided to be that kind of person that everyone knew.  She joined every club, became friends with the popular cheerleaders and jocks, and appeared in almost every page of the yearbook.  She said that by changing herself, there was no confusion in her life and it was just easier for her to create a life for herself.  But in this new place she moved to, she didn't get a chance to figure out who she was going to be and found it very difficult.  For example, she didn't know who she'd be friends with, such as the jocks or the geeks.  Instead, friends found her by inviting her to sit with her or being the boy next door.  She also met Dave who introduced her to being herself and taking all of her life's problems in (such as how her mother divorced her dad to marry one of her idols) instead of creating a fresh start as if the past had never happened.  Mclean faced a lot of confusion from her feelings about Dave to telling her mother how she really felt.  And in the end, she realized it was okay, as she put it, "to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if I fell, at least I wouldn't do it alone."  Overall, this makes me think that although it was harder for Mclean to live a "real" life, that doing so is better than putting on a fake smile and saying words you might never have wanted to say.  This is because life is supposed to be hard.  And sometimes, the best part of it is letting the world take its course and finding yourself.  Although being fake might be easier, as exemplified by Mclean, it may make you feel alone because no one knows the real you.  Just be yourself and if you fall, at least you might not do it alone.