Sponsored By No One - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/108/truth-and-lies-at-age-ten

I played around with this one with a few different stories, but then I remembered the most complicated, most ongoing lie that I told while a kid, and that's the one I'm sticking with.

I had a hat that said, "Sponsored By No One." Originally this hat was there to thumb my nose at the TPC Summerland rich kids who had tennis teams that were either sponsored, or at least got donated material from big name brands. My team was all sorts of ghetto, our main practice courts were two blocks away from down town Las Vegas, just down the street from the Las Vegas court house, as well as THE little white wedding chapel.

When I wore it on the court, it was snarky, and I loved it. Off the court, I knew that playing tennis was lame, and so instead of explaining my hat, I would say that it was an actual company.

This then expanded to me making up information about this fake shell company. As soon as I said it to one person and they started to ask questions about the company, the lie started to grow. What type of company was it? An extreme sports company, a small start up that specialized in things like skateboarding, snowboarding, or whatever else. Remember, this was in the late 90's and things like the X-Games were just starting to be a big thing. Was I actually sponsored? It depended on who I was talking to. For some, yes, but only up to the point that I got free clothing and gear from them, like the hat. For others, no, I got the hat at an event for free. They threw it out into the crowd, I grabbed it.

The lie was a small one, but I kept it going, and now that I think about it was because if any version of the story was true, I wasn't me.

I have always been an introvert. I have also always known that being a loner, not having any/many friends was weird, and any of the 'friends' I did have were school friends. Those are the types of friends that you see while at school, and while in class or around campus, you laugh, joke, and can be considered friends, however outside of school you never talk to each other, you aren't invited to birthday parties, you never meet their family, and the idea of ever going to their house is down right alien. In school I was sort of a loner, but outside of school, I was practically a shut in.

I knew that this was weird, and No One was, quite ironically, my way of trying to show that I had some sort of life than being 'that' kid. No One was the way that I could try to have a life outside of myself, even if that life was a complete lie. No One made me either related to the cool, cutting edge, extreme sports world, or it made me be part of the community that would at least go to events where there's at least the opportunity to get No One's hat. Even though it was a lie, No One was my attempt to break out of the weird little life that I called my own.