"If you ride to the left, you will loose your horse, if you ride to the right you will loose your head." This phrase from a Russian folk tale exactly fits the quandary I got myself into. Reaching the fork in the road a decision has to be made, and sometimes the decision could ultimately lead to a change in the path of life.

In highschool, our club - Broadcasting System hosted a broadcasting festival. Despite working in a small ramshackle building that neither had a decent bathroom nor a heating system, I was happy to be doing what I wanted to do; filming and editing videos using my knowledge, creativity and above all passion. Therefore shooting videos in a 10 degrees below zero temperature or eating only Ramen for a week didn't bother me.

However, everything has a downside. Club work and my studies were inversely related and my working in the club negatively affected my grades. My father being a strict man as he is, banned me from going to the workroom. But the club work meant a lot to me and my club. Every project were prepared in teams; from idea planning to editing. Which meant that every trivial process needed cooperation. If one did not complete his/her part the burden fell on the rest of the team.

I was in the middle of the fork of the road. Obey my father's words and disappoint my teammates or disobey my father and risk ruining my relationship with him. But back then I wasn't mature enough to ponder over the possible consequences of my decision. Without much consideration I decided to lie to my father.

Truth has a tendency of coming out in the end. I got caught going to the workroom one day. With disappointment in his voice, he said that had I been honest with him he might have allowed me go to the workroom for a few hours. My lies hurt my father and I felt ashamed and regretful. I was grounded for a month but with my father's understanding I attended the festival and successfully ended what I've started.

In such situations when extricating oneself from a hurdle is highly unlikely, the urge to lie rears its ugly head. But I learned from experience that the phrase 'honesty is the best policy' fits all situations. From then on I try my best to be honest in all circumstances. A while ago I was faced with a similar situation. My father didn't approve of sending an application to TAD because he wanted me to be a professor or a lawyer. I could have just listened to my father and not apply, or I could have thought of a lie to secretly apply to TAD. But I knew that lying would only hurt my father so I decided to tell him honestly how desperately I wanted to study in TAD. After much persuasion I finally got his consent. Telling the truth eventually changed my path of life.

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