am i real?

i can’t play the game of “who’s real and who’s fake” when i barely even know who i am. it feels weird and hypocritical, even to judge the authenticity of others when i haven’t even figured out my own identity. ppl say things like judgment towards other ppl abt their realness so casually, but how can i call someone fake when i’m still unsure of what being “real” even means for me?

there are days when i'm not entirely sure if i’m looking at a version of myself that i chose or one that was molded by what people expect me to be. am i genuine when i’m smiling around them? am i fake when i stay quiet just to avoid conflict? if i shift the way i talk depending on who i’m with, does that mean i’m pretending or just adapting? these are the kinds of questions that loop in my head when i think about the idea of being "real."

we live in a world obsessed with labels. ppl want to define everything and everyone. you're either real or fake. loyal or disloyal. good or bad. but human beings are way more complicated than that. nobody is a hundred percent real all the time. everyone wears a mask at some point, whether to protect themselves, to survive, or just to fit in for a moment. that doesn’t make them fake. it just makes them human.