The Five Times I Used a Fake Persona, and Why I Still Do Today
One
I was 10 years old when I created my first fake name. I was on the playground with my little sisters, and like any ten year old, the lure of the playground just wasn’t as shiny as it used to be. The slides were too short, the monkey bars sucked, and even though the swings were still pretty cool, I remembered the distinct feeling that I was getting too old for this nonsense. Still, my stay at home mother needed an activity to get all of her kids out of the house, so the playground was it.
The only cool thing about the playground was seeing all of the names carved into the playground equipment. I lived in a fairly upper middle-class neighborhood at the time; my parents striving to keep up with the joneses, unaware that the 2008 crash was right around the corner. So despite not being able to afford where we lived, I grew up in a nice enough neighborhood that seeing graffiti was a “cool sign of rebellion” that would quickly be covered up by the home owners association. In my mind, carving into playground equipment wasn’t a fleeting act of coolness, it was a sign that you once existed. So what I didn’t know who Sheryl and Jim were; based on their heart carving, their love must have been destined to live forever. Like any kid, I wanted that; to be cool, to be remembered, and to do something my parents would…
