The Rarest Thing We Carry

We live in a world where everything looks polished, filtered, edited, and staged. It’s almost funny how often I come across perfectly curated moments online—sunsets that look like they were painted by AI, “candid” smiles that were obviously rehearsed, quotes that sound deep but mean nothing when you really sit with them. You don’t even have to look far. Fake is everywhere. Real is rare. It’s the kind of line you read somewhere, nod to, and then suddenly start noticing in your everyday interactions.

Today, that thought found its way into a conversation with a colleague. We were talking about work when they suddenly said, “You know what I appreciate? When I can be myself with my manager and team. No extra layers, no politics, no filters, no performance.” It caught me off guard because it echoed exactly what I’d been thinking while looking at this illustration earlier. That simple line—Fake is everywhere. Real is rare.—felt like it had climbed out of the picture and sat right there between us.

And it stayed with me.

There’s a kind of relief that comes with realness. We spend so much of our time trying to manage impressions, maintain images, and present the most acceptable version of ourselves. When someone shows up without their armor, just as themselves, it hits different. It reminds you of how exhausting pretending can be. It makes you want to exhale.

Realness isn’t about oversharing or being brutally honest to the point of hurting people. It’s not about being raw 24/7 or saying whatever crosses your mind. It’s something softer, more grounded. It’s when your words match your intentions. When your actions match your promises. When the energy you give people is consistent whether someone’s watching or not.

Maybe that’s why authenticity feels so rare—because it requires courage. It requires slowing down long enough to know who you actually are beneath the expectations, the personas, and the habits you’ve collected over the years. It requires resisting the temptation to fit neatly into someone else’s idea of you.

The irony is, everyone claims to want authenticity, yet so many people retreat into masks because they fear judgment. And fair enough—being real comes with risk. You can be misunderstood. You can be rejected. You can be told you’re “too much” or “too honest” or “too sensitive.” But the rewards of being real? They’re worth every bit of that risk.

The relationships you build become deeper. Conversations become more meaningful. Trust becomes effortless. And life, oddly enough, becomes much simpler because you’re no longer juggling multiple versions of yourself.

Maybe that’s why I appreciated that conversation today. It wasn’t long or philosophical, but it was honest enough to remind me that authenticity still exists. People still crave it. And sometimes, the universe just nudges you with the right words at the right moment—whether on a piece of art or in a casual chat at work—to say, “Stay true. Stay real.”

Because in a world full of filters and illusions, being genuine might just be the rarest, most valuable thing you can offer.