If you’re like me, you had no idea what MTV’s hit show ‘Catfish’ was until recently. Although it seems like everyone was hip to the show but me, I only recently saw it, and now I’m hooked.

The show—which is literally like watching a slow motion car crash—helps online lovers meet up for the first time.

Cute, right? WRONG!

In the few episodes I’ve seen, the couple’s meet-up did not end well. While in most cases the pair trades text and Facebook messages professing their love for each other, but there’s a problem: they’ve never seen each other.

Sure they trade pictures, but despite living in 2012 where everybody and their mama (including mine) has access to smartphones and laptops with video chatting capabilities, the folks on ‘Catflish’ haven’t even done that…despite chatting for years. Yes, years.

Predictably, the person ducking the meet-up has something to hide. In the two episodes I’ve seen, one girl’s “dream guy” turned out to be her female arch enemy gunning for revenge, and another guy’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty, turned out to be an overweight brunette with serious self-esteem issues.

It’s pretty rough.

While my Twitter timeline erupted with, “How can he/she be soooooo stupid” tweets, I started wondering how many of us “catfish” our own lives.

Rock with me for a minute. The people on ‘Catfish’ pretend to be something they aren’t because they are unhappy, lonely, or hopelessly self-conscious so they dupe others into falling in love with them with a fake profiles and slew of real emotions.

Though the deceivers’ actions on ‘Catfish are despicable, and many have no problem criticizing them for it, if we’re honest, most of us have “catfished” our own lives before.

Think about it. How many of us are stuck in relationships, jobs, career paths, or lives we hate simply because we’re pretending?

We want to keep up with the Joneses, we want to be the perfect person, we want to live up to other people’s expectations for our lives.

While we may knock the people on ‘Catfish’ for deceiving others, isn’t the biggest injustice deceiving ourselves?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I really want out of life. And while I’m getting pretty clear on what it is, I always have to check in with myself to make sure I’m not fronting.

I ask myself:

• Are my goals my own?
• Am I pursuing ______ because I really want to or because I think I should?
• Am I happy?
• Do I love what I’m doing?

Checking in with yourself and being honest are one of the best ways you can make sure you’re not sleepwalking through your life, but how often do you really do that?

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Are you present in your life every single, day or are you merely pretending? Please leave a comment and let me know if you ever ‘Catfish’ your own life.

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