Daily Prompt – April 11, 2026

In high school I think the biggest lesson I learned was most people only pretend to care about you to get something from you. Jaded, I know. But it was my genuine lived experience throughout much of high school.

I wasn’t one of the popular kids. I didn’t have a strong core group of friends. But I wasn’t exactly an outcast either. I just sort of existed. I was the chameleon kid who fit in with whomever she was with. For the most part that was good enough. I knew my role in the social hierarchy.

What always stung however was when I thought I finally found someone who seemed to genuinely care about me and want to be my friend only to have that discarded the moment I was not longer useful. Need help with a homework assignment, act like you’re my best friend, until we are around all your other friends then I don’t exist anymore.

I still see and experience the happening today and I hate it. We don’t need to be best friends for me to help you. We don’t even need to be friends. I’ll help because you asked and I can. There’s zero need for pretense.

In fact the world could use a whole lot less pretense in general.

Be real. Be genuine. Be authentic. Be honest. Most of all, be you.