There’s what happened, and there’s the version you tell. Know the gap.

Telling always involves selection. You choose where to start, what to leave out, which parts to emphasise, and that is unavoidable rather than dishonest. The risk is forgetting you did it, because after enough retellings the version replaces the memory and you lose the ability to check your own account against anything.

Once in a while, tell a story to yourself as plainly as you can with your worst detail left in. Just to see that you still can. Keeping the two separate is what lets you stay honest without having to narrate everything perfectly.