You take a bag of your favorite candies and you cannot wait to taste them; so much so that your craving goes beyond the ideas of savoring the sweets and you decide to purge them all in one sitting.

In the moment you do not care about the later consequences; the sweet flavors taste better than the reality of rotting your teeth, a stomach ache or acne.

Our gluttonous, careless behaviors allow our pleasantries to temporarily blind us of the truth. Which might be nice for the moments of endless pieces of candy until you are getting cavities filled.

These candies are just like the little white lies we tell people to make our lives easier. Just like candy, lies are what most people want to hear because they are usually sweeter than the truth we are hiding from.

It is always harder to swallow the medicine, and more importantly our pride. We would rather do what is easier than what might be uncomfortable, even if it will help us in the long run.

This is a personal truth I seem to be facing a lot lately, not only with myself, but also with the people in my life.

The thought of talking through conflict with an open and honest mindset makes most people want to squirm in their skin suits.

We instantly want to rank someone else’s actions as worse than our own, because competition and justification is easier than owning up to our mistakes.

I know I would rather shut someone up quickly with a white lie than to hurt them with the truth, but in the long run, there is no weight left on my shoulders if I am just honest with myself and everyone I associate with.

And I especially hate when I am lied to, so it is only fair that I give everyone else the same honesty that I expect.

On top of that, little lies generally spread quickly into bigger lies so it is easier to avoid them altogether rather than making a mess.

Even if it is harder to work through cringy conversations that might hurt our egos, I think it is important and healthy for us to see ourselves for who we are, even if that means we are being rotten.

I am a stickler for the idea of honesty being the best policy, and in the end, I find it more beneficial if everyone takes the medicine.

Abbey Whittington is a junior journalism major and can be reached at 581-2812 or anwhittingtona@eiu.edu.