Why Pretend?

by Kennedy Estrella-Alvarez

Why do we pretend?

To pretend…

Pretending helps you create, imagine, dream, or lie.

Not the same as fake. Never was. Never is. To pretend is to cover your feelings. Protecting you.

It makes us confident, though we are drowning in low-self esteem.

Brave when choking on tears.

It makes us unstoppable, when weak,

Perfect, when human,

It gives us the image of control when all is chaos,

So we pretend.

Pretend to be happy, to be special, to be important, to be-

to fall in love.

I guess we rather live a glamorous lie than a horrifying truth.

We-yes we-deny our errors, mistakes, flaws, everything that we are because we think that we are not enough.

We hide.

We hide our true selves because if we let them out into the real world we know that they’ll break.

Their pieces will be lost and then what?

So we build our high walls, we put on our masks,

we pretend.

Pretend that it’s all, “fine”, but we know the truth.

We do not ignore it but we pretend to ignore it.

That is why we pretend.

-Kenndy Estrella-Alvarez 7