Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth, you don't need to remember anything.” The validity of these words remains true to this day. The effects of one or more lies always seem to lead down an extremely damaging path. Even though I have experienced both sides of a lie, I often wonder if the reasoning behind the lie is always right. Do people lie to protect themselves? Or is a lie an extension of deception? These are questions that many people can relate to and think about because we have all been lied to. Whether you've been told white lies about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus or someone has lied to you about their whereabouts, any misrepresentation is simply a lie. The effects of lying are what I have the most experience with and it is these effects that have led me to be a liar myself. Living a lie or maintaining lies that an individual has told over time is a tedious process and difficult to endure. My experience with lying began at a very young age. I often fell in love with hanging out with people older than me and often felt like I had to establish that my experiences were equal to or greater than theirs. Growing up in Alabama, where the weather changes as quickly as a couch remote and football is the epitome of life makes for an interesting childhood. Marked knees, dirty clothes and climbing willows were part of my daily life. As I progressed through middle school, I started hanging out with kids older than me because we would play basketball during recess. Even though I was eleven at the time, I could hold my own on the basketball court against fifteen and sixteen year olds. It was during these moments on the basketball court that they shared their life experiences with each other and I often felt left out. Being in the middle of a paper and anguish filled my heart as I listened to the pain of love. The effects of this lie broke my heart at the time as well as my confidence and it took a long time to overcome the trust issues that resulted from this lie. One aspect of lying that tends to be overlooked is the effects of lying. People lie for different reasons or find different ways to justify their reasons for lying. However, the main thing that remains true is that a lie is a false statement. A false statement can change the course of a person's life or it can be used to hide any number of activities, but maintaining a lie and ultimately exposing a lie is what causes the most harm. Whether it's lying about meeting someone or being involved in a particular activity, people need to realize the power of words and the effect they have on anyone involved..