What I Say Vs. What I Think

Feb. 17, 2012
Chelsea Fagan is a writer living in Paris. It's less pretentious than it sounds.
I am a liar. We all are. And not the bad kind, really, but not the hilarious Jim Carrey kind, either. We just say things that generally aren’t true — and much more often than I think we’d like to admit. Our days are filled with little white lies — the good kind of course. Life would just be far too difficult to navigate without them. And here, I’d like to go through just a small sample of the thought/speech discrepancy that make my days run smoothly.

What I Say: “One tall skim latte please. No, nothing to eat this morning — I’m not really hungry.”
What I Think: “Ordering a chocolate chocolate frappuccino at this hour would be inappropriate, I guess. And I’m going to prevent myself from ordering another breakfast sandwich if it means I have to cut off my own hand. Those things are literally the devil. Of course I’m hungry! I just don’t want to die of a heart attack in two weeks.”

What I Say: “[Via Facebook chat] Hey. What’s up?”
What I Think: “I have so long ago stopped caring about this acquaintanceship that the only time I remember I need to delete you from my Facebook is when you pop up in my chat for a conversation that consist of two heys, a brb, and dead silence. Why can I never remember to delete you?”

What I Say: “Hey [insert irritating coworker here], any big plans for the weekend? That sounds fun!”
What I Think: “You are the physical embodiment of nails on a chalkboard. You’re going camping this weekend? Being stuck in the woods with no escape route for several days and no indoor plumbing — kind of feel like I’ve found my personal idea of hell.”

What I Say: “No, you don’t look fat in that dress, you look great!”
What I Think: “What the f-ck is anyone supposed to say to this question?! This is the spring-loaded bear trap of questions. Yeah, your ass looks kind of big in the bottom half of that dress — but what are you going to do? Tear it off, run home naked, and change into some Spanx? If you think a dress is unflattering, it’s unflattering. Trust your instincts. Please.”

What I Say: “[Via text message] Yeah, I’m on my way. Almost there. Just gotta find a parking space.”
What I Think: “Crap! Crap! Where are my keys? How long can I make her think I’m looking for a parking space? I bet she’s waiting outside taking pictures of me as I type this. She knows. I have to stop texting, it’s turning my life into a carnival of tiny lies.”

What I Say: “Yeah, I don’t know if I’m gonna go to the club tonight. Kinda not feeling well.”
What I Think: “I live in a world where I have to justify not wanting to spend 12 dollars a cocktail so I can scream across a dark, sweaty room to ask my friends how their weeks were. I live in a world where that is what I should want to be doing. Maybe I should just be honest and tell them if I wanted to get airborne herpes, I would lick a subway pole like a respectable human being.”

What I Say: “I’m not really a whiskey person, no thank you. Never did like it.”
What I Think: “I was once a whiskey person, before I vomited myself into Inside Out Boy after an attempt to finish a bottle myself at the beach. Now the very smell of whiskey makes my hair hurt.”

What I Say: “I’m just not really looking for a relationship right now.”
What I Think: “The Friday-night potential of free food on a first date is now outweighed by the certain combination of ice cream, wine, and Tumblr.”

What I Say: “I don’t watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians. It’s trash.”
What I Think: “OMG is it weird that I kind of have this secret thing for Scott Disick because he reminds me of Patrick Bateman?”

What I Say: “I’ve seen that movie. It was pretty good.”
What I Think: “No, I haven’t seen it, but I don’t want to sit through ten minutes of you explaining it to me and telling me about all of the complicated feelies it gave you, thus ruining it for me in every sense of the word.”

What I Say:
“I sent you that email yesterday. Yeah… It must not have gone through.”
What I Think: “Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god.”

What I Say: “Oh, no, I don’t read Thought Catalog. It’s not my style, really.”
What I Think: “Teach me, Stephanie Georgopulos. Teach me how to cry.” TC mark

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image – Shutterstock

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  • pintopony101

     “The Friday-night potential of free food on a first date is now
    outweighed by the certain combination of ice cream, wine, and Tumblr.”

    Haha so true.

  • Sophia

    all of these. all of them. yes.
    Teach me, Stephanie Georgeopulos. Teach me how to cry.

  • liz

    yes!

  • Joshgondelman

    The Patrick Bateman/Scott Disick comparison is startling in its accuracy and hilarity.
    Also, I have the weird hunch that every woman I’m friends with feels that way secretly.
    Well, no matter. Off to listen to some Huey Lewis and keep working on those abs.

  • JA

    perfection

  • http://twitter.com/tannnyaya Tanya Salyers

    I <3 Patrick Bateman, too…glad it's normal

  • SBG

    “Maybe I should just be honest and tell them if I wanted to get airborne herpes, I would lick a subway pole like a respectable human being.”
    By virtue of licking a pole a disease is not airborne, it’s contact based. In any event, herpes isn’t airborne. 

    Sorry that this is totally unrelated to your post, but I hate allowing misinformation and miseducation on things that just go to reinforce stigmas. 

    • Anonymous

      Man, we know what airborne means, stop harshing my buzz.

      • SBG

        Dude – there’s just no reason to propagate misinformation about communicable diseases and reinforce stigmas. Wasn’t harshing your buzz. Just spreading truths.

      • Asdf

        But what you said (wrote)… was it truly what you thought? Let’s be honest. You thought about equating it to licking a subway pole.

      • Michaelwg

        Chelsea, I bequeath literary license to you. You may talk about herpes any way you wish, unless it’s stating that I personally have them, in a public forum type setting. Then no. no.

  • Guest

    “I bet she’s waiting outside taking pictures of me as I type this. She knows. I have to stop texting, it’s turning my life into a carnival of tiny lies.”
    haha, always me.

  • Michaelwg

    As a heterosexual male, I definitely have a thing for Patrick Bateman

  • Rebecca

    The last two = so brilliant

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/THKNR5C2VGZSEHHRL5H5F3WAP4 sama

    The number of times I have said “OMG THAT LOOKS SO GOOD ON YOU”… the phrase has lost all meaning to me now. I no longer feel crippling guilt every time I say it, and that’s worrying….

  • biteme

    What I Say: “I don’t watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians. It’s trash.”
    What I Think: “OMG is it weird that I kind of have this secret thing for Scott Disick because he reminds me of Patrick Bateman?”
    I’m never going to be able to watch any Kardashian show without thinking that. DDDDDD: BECAUSE IT IS HILARIOUS AND TRUE.

  • Cole Armstrong

    Chelsea Fagan and Stephanie Georgopulos need to have a hot literary love affair, and Ryan O’Connell needs to watch and then write a hilarious piece about how gay he is and how it did nothing for him.

    This would be the perfect trifecta of ThoughCatalog.

    PS: “I live in a world where I have to justify not wanting to spend 12 dollars a cocktail so I can scream across a dark, sweaty room to ask my friends how their weeks were.”

    Nail on the fraking head.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1217597690 Mitch Lavender

    Let’s face it, people do not want absolute honesty and it jeopardizes personal survival to be absolutely honest.  Cool piece… I dig it.

  • trobs

    What I Think: “Teach me, Stephanie Georgopulos. Teach me how to cry.” ”PEERRRFFEECTT!

  • Fa

    being honest is easier because then you dont have to give a shit about what anyone thinks.

    • Melissa

      that’s nice. but i think some people out there literally can’t help but give a shit.

  • guest

    Is inside out boy a tim burton character? (Yeah completely related to the rest of the article)

  • http://www.facebook.com/grae14 Graeson Harris-Young

    As a fellow human being, I would almost always rather hear the “what I think” than the “what I say” in these situations.  How much more interesting and less wasteful life might be!  But then art that does away with mangled communication and tells it how it is wouldn’t be so powerful, and hey, I like art.

  • http://twitter.com/gypzAndy AndreaCarmona

    BAHAHAHA! Love it.

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