The Harvard College Honor code declares that we "hold honesty as the foundation of our community." As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.

A lie, it has always been a lifeline for me. Sometimes I lie so that not only my environment but I also begin to believe in this illusion. The sheer talent that distinguished me from others, at least I believed in it. My whole class was filled with talented guys who had art, sports, or mathematics abilities as a child. I, not knowing what I like and what I can do better than others, lied to them all the time about my achievements. After that, I heard their admiration and envy, and I never liked it. All I wanted was to be no worse than others; lies were painful for the soul. This continued until the 9th grade. It was in that year that I found my calling and recognized my talent in programming. I became freer when I did not lie to my friends and talk about my failures. However, recently, I got out of the rut. On October 3rd, the annual election of the president of the Students' union was held at my lyceum. It was one of the most responsible and exciting events during the whole school time. I can confidently say that my presentation was the most impressive and promising for the voters. Despite this, the girl, who failed the whole presentation and speech, won. After a while, I found out that she used the volunteer club for her purposes and loudly declared herself to everyone. It is not that I did not like it. I was furious because the club created for kindness was used for the self-interest of a teenager. I told about it when I came to the head teacher's office, but she said it only indirectly concerns the elections. I could not help myself and started lying to blackmail her. Since I was the creator of the official telegram bot of the lyceum, I was given the entire database of teachers, with the condition that I would not give it to anyone. I said that I would publish all this data on the Internet, although I had no intention. In the end, she agreed with me, but on the condition that my friend, not me, would become president, and I would officially transfer my votes to him, I agreed with her with joy. Two weeks have passed, that girl considers me a sworn enemy, and my friend almost every day reminds me that I did it to defend our rights. Nevertheless, was it so? I ruined the girl's school life and created a wrong impression of myself with the headteacher, but I also defended the honor of my friends and the whole volunteer club. By the way, this girl wanted to close this club. My conscience did not know what was right in this situation. On October 23rd, I approached the headteacher and apologized, admitting that I never intended to do what I threatened. She forgave me. However, my soul was still in turmoil. Then I went to that girl and asked for forgiveness, and it was not easy to tell her. She just looked away and said nothing. At that moment, I felt the freedom of conscience. As Marcus Aurelius said: "Do not do what your conscience condemns, and do not say what does not agree with the truth. Observe this most important thing, and you will complete the whole task of your life. ". Did I do this under the protection of the truth or because my conscience tortured me? It doesn't matter, because I realized that, whether a person tells the truth or not, in the end, if he is noble and courageous enough, his internal tortures will force him to confess to everything.