Why lie?

So I've been thinking about this for a while. I've met a lot of people that I think still lie about what they do in order to impress other people. Why do people do this? It makes no sense, and often ends in disaster. I'll give examples using nicknames for people.

"Garrett": Once gave false information to a friend. In his 8th grade year, while being a typical 8th grader, an idiot, told a friend that he had smoked weed before. Not only that he had smoked weed, but that it turned out to be laced with something. He's still not quite sure why he did this, but he thinks it was an attempt to lose the "goody-goody" tag that had followed him his entire life. Of course, he told this to an anti-druggie friend, and ended up getting a lecture from the friend. He felt like an idiot, so he felt like an 8th grader. As he got the lecture he felt horrible for two reasons: He felt bad for lying to the friend and making her think something that was false, and he felt horrible for his imaginary experience of getting high. He's since quit both of these activities and refuses to make up stories about his past, unless they serve a comedic purpose, and even then they're just exaggerations.

"Kat": There's no proof of any actual lying, but as someone who's hung out/grown up with people who've done drugs, her druggie grammar is too crappy to be believable. She once said that she "had" weed. While it is possible to take a pill of thc, it's highly improbable that anyone would do this, and if they did they'd never say they had weed, they'd say they took some thc. But had seems a little more acceptable in that case than "had" meaning "smoked". The outcome was quite simple for her, the person she told this to automatically stopped talking to her. He would've continued to talk to her, since he doesn't care if his friends do drugs, but she was probably lying, and if not, had horrible grammar.

"Heather": There are so many stories to go along with this person. She's the bionic woman, with almost half of her body composed of metal joints and screws. She also supposedly hurt her arm and wore a sling at band camp, but when she got back her mom said in front of everyone she didn't need the sling. She's even been known to impersonate the Evil Monkey from Family Guy. While this author doesn't really hate her like others do, others do, and many simply because she makes up stories. Of course, this whole thing would be quite ironic if people were just making up that they didn't like her, in order to seem cool.

I'll conclude by reminding you that odds are, if you're reading this, you're above 14. Once you hit high school you should realize you don't need to make up stories to seem cool. If you really wanted to be cool you'd know it's not what you make up, but what you wear. Look at this guy, total idiot, but wears cool clothing, so girls think he's hot. Take a page out of this guys book. Please submit any of your made up stories, past or present, to free.utah@gmail.com. I will use a fake name just as I did for the people above, so don't be afraid.