I’ve always considered myself quite an honest person, but I began to wonder today if maybe I am too confident in my own honesty. Can that sometimes be a bad thing?

I pride myself on the fact that if I am asked a question I will answer it truthfully. Of course, if the truth is that it’s a secret and I can’t tell, or I’ve been specifically asked to keep something quiet then I will, but mostly, I’ll be truthful.

Take this blog for example. Over the course of the past two months I’ve averaged two posts a day, give or take, and so I’ve had a lot of things to say. To write something like this you have to take from the world around you, and so characters from my class, my school and my family pop up all the time. And aside from making sure to omit names where it’s appropriate, I think I’ve been completely honest in my thoughts about these people. None of them read my blog though, which is an issue.

Today at lunch we ended up discussing this, and I was ready to admit to my friends that at some time or another, something I have written on here has been directed at them. Because it’s always little things they do, rather than them personally, I feel completely comfortable telling them, and have told a few people directly what annoys me about their attitude. Today I felt awkward about it for the first time. Everyone has things they think about other people, and I began to think about what people think of me. I don’t particularly mind, unless it is something I should change. I wondered if maybe people would prefer me to be less honest with them about their shortcomings (with regard to attitude, I never presume to judge anyone on any other aspect of their life, and I hope I never will).

So what do you think? Is honesty always the best policy?