So, who ARE you, really?

For that matter, who am I? Over the past few years that I've blogged, I've read a variety of blogs. Some have made me laugh, some have made me cry, and some have made me shake my head in wonder. I've read blogs and thought to myself, "I would LOVE to be this person's friend in 'real life' because she ROCKS." You know, unless your readers are ALL family and friends, it would be so very easy to create the person we want others to think we are. Heck, even with family and friends, we can do that to an extent, right?

Think about it. Sadly, we occasionally hear horror stories about young girls who are befriended by someone who pretends to be around the same age. Amazingly, they have extremely similar interests and hit it off. After several weeks, they plan to meet at the local mall. The only problem is that the person who befriended the girl ends up being a 40 year old pervert who rapes her and leaves her dead in the woods. It happens. We know that 50 year old men who are undercover agents pretend to be 15 year old girls just to catch those pervs and get them off the streets.

And it isn't just perverts or undercover agents who do this. HOW do you know that I am who I say I am? HOW do you know that I'm happily married to a wonderful man? HOW do you know that he doesn't beat the living hell out of me on a regular basis? HOW do you know that I love my job as a teacher? I could tell you that I have been selected Teacher of the Year three times during my career, and you'd never know the difference unless you work with me or live in the same town. (Just for the record, I haven't been TOTY once, much less three times.) I could tell you that I have run in the New York Marathon, and you'd simply have to take my word for it. I could take the experiences of someone else, make them mine, and then share them with you.

I'm not saying that this happens with bloggers in general, but I'm sure it happens some. Why do people do this? Who knows. I'm sure a variety of reasons exist. And what in the world even made me think of this as a blog topic? The Brad Paisley song Online has been running through my head today, and it just made me wonder. I mean...how easy would it be??