Authenticity--A Paragraph a Day

My wife and I are watching a television series that takes place on the Navajo Nation.  It turns out that none of the main actors are even Navajo, and most of the series wasn't even filmed on the Navajo Nation.  It's rather disappointing to find out that something that I thought was authentic, isn't.  And it gets me to thinking about other people whom I've known who I thought were one thing, but who turned out to be something else.  In the end, I learned that I couldn't trust the person they seemed to be because they were really quite different than they led me to believe they were.  Authenticity and trust are two concepts that are firmly intertwined, and when we as people lose our authenticity, or when we present an inauthentic self to other people, we should be neither surprised nor upset when others start to mistrust us.  I want to be authentic because I want other people to trust me, especially my students, and I can't expect them to trust me if I'm not honest with them.  I consider authenticity to be staying true to my morals and ethics, speaking the truth, and acting with integrity--if I don't believe in a certain something, I shouldn't say I do just to make someone else happy.  My authentic self is a gift that I've been given and that I spend my life uncovering, and I want to be true to that authenticity so that others know that they can trust me to be true no matter what the circumstances.  In a world full of people pretending to be something they're not, it is a difficult and daunting task, but it most certainly is possible.