A Stupid Lie Told By A 5th Grader
For the “I Told A Lie” Writing Prompt. And yes, this is a true story.
In grade school, I had a pen pal. This pen pal was located in Australia, and our correspondence through pencil and paper brought on the lie I would, these days, laugh at until I fly to the sun.
My fifth grade class was part of an international pen pal program; my class was assigned another on the other side of the world, down under in the continent of Australia. After some letters back and forth with a girl I’d been talking to (we’d sent pictures to one another lol), I became curious about Australia, so I focused myself with research. During this time, the world wide web was relatively in it infancy, so Wikipedia and Google weren’t even a thing to resort to. Instead, it was the wonderful, colorful, World Book encyclopedia sets that annually changed its covers.
As I researched, I found an indigenous group, aboriginals, that I thought I could relate to, based solely of the color of their skin, which is similar to mine. Before the research, I didn’t know there were people in Australia who looked like me, myself being a Black American.
Reading up on aboriginals caught more of my interest, and I got to the point of believing I could possibly be related to aboriginals, or somehow aboriginal myself!
My then-obsession w/ the aboriginals went as far as the unthinkable: telling someone I was one of them. I would tell of information I found in the World Books, not thinking or caring of whether or not they’d believe it. This unfortunate yet patient person happened to be my teacher’s aide, who doubled as a substitute when Mrs. Harris, my then teacher, wasn’t there.
The teacher’s aide, Ms. Jackson, was very considerate, listened closely to me, and seemingly surprised when I gave her this rundown of info. But there was the inkling at the back of my mind she didn’t believe a word of it.
I tell myself I was an asshole as a child, but am fully aware that I was a blissfully ignorant child with a vivid imagination, who didn’t know any better. I mean, there was a point in fourth grade when, upon finding out I shared a birthday with a classmate, called her my twin, though she obviously wasn’t, nor were we related in any way.
Thinking back on the lie over the years, it was a bit… embarrassing. Now, it’s funny to think about, that I could be such an imaginative child, and to assume, then, that I could get away with such a thing! Generally, I’m not very good at lying, which is why I choose not to do it at all. It can get one in trouble! Yet I’m thankful that such a lie as claiming to be aboriginal didn’t carry consequences harsher than the lesson of humility. I’m very grateful to Ms. Jackson for being so damn patient, letting the lie roll off her shoulders. I guess she’s heard worse, and didn’t want to burst a child’s bubble.
