T is for Truth and Trust

I’m a pretty awful friend. Truth. But I’m a pretty awesome person. Truth.

My friendship is all based on two things: honesty and trust. Sure, sure, tell me I look good with green eyeliner on when I don’t – that’s fine. Stroke my ego, I don’t care. But I need to trust you when it is really important – I need someone to give me some cold-hard truth. If you can’t do it, then we’re not really friends – are we?

My friendships reach a point where either you are “in for life” or “please pack your knives and go.” (I love Top Chef – there’s another T – random true fact: I did a photo shoot for a free Los Angeles magazine of the executive producers of Top Chef – it was a w e s o m e).

I have a line drawn in the sand constantly with all of my relationships (truth). If you cross it, you will see a whirlwind storm of fury that only a few have witnessed in their life (all have lived to tell about it). But I am wary of people that test that line. They kick it, smudge it, try to cover it up with more sand and pretend it isn’t there. But rarely, very rarely, have people actually crossed it.

But something that will immediately put you on the wrong side? Lying to me. And lying to yourself. I don’t deal well with people that think, “I’m going to hurt Rachel’s feelings if I tell her the truth – so I’m not going to.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. I could explain numerous times where lies hurt ten times worse than the truth. I could explain the webs that people tried to spin and ultimately failed. I will always search for the truth – and I trust that people will hold me equally accountable.

This is not to say that you can’t tell a story. Story-telling and embellishing details is different and fun, but outright lies are not.  ;)