I faked my entire college career

I never actually went to college. I didn’t feel like I had the money or time, and my parents didn’t seem to care about me going. But it was expected of me by basically everyone else in my life and I was too lazy to actually go, so I faked everything.<br><br>I went to a book store and bought a college application guide, and brought it to work everyday to read in the bathroom. It was surprisingly very easy to sound like a college student. I could hear other students at my school talk about their college days and I memorized the names and stories of their friends, and would use those names and stories when coworker asked me about my college life. They’d ask me what college I went to and I’d pull out the book and read from the list of the top colleges and pick one. They’d ask me which city it was in and I’d quickly Google it. I’d tell them about my major, and about the places I went and the things I did. I even went so far as to tell them I was in a fraternity.<br><br>Eventually they just started talking to me like I had graduated, but I kept up to act for years. I was so anxious that someone would find out. I was sure every phone call I got or every knock on my door was about to ruin my life.<br><br>Eight years later I’m still on those same friends Facebooks and they’re posting photos from their kids graduation with my fake fraternity brothers and fake girlfriend. Apparently the fake college student I pretended to be became my successful lawyer friend.<br><br>I’ve been feeling incredibly guilty lately and want to come clean, and I’ve been seriously debating this with my (real) girlfriend the past few weeks. I know it sounds crazy to the rest of the world, but think about being in this situation. I feel like my entire life is a lie. I’ve been depressed about it for years and I don’t know what to do.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Edit: 10/15/18 Thank you all for the messages. I read through all of them. Most of you are very kind and understanding. Thank you especially for that. I feel a lot better. Going to talk to my girlfriend about it all again today. I’m going to start slowly coming clean.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Update: 6/5/19 - Sorry I never wrote a proper update and closed everything out. I didn’t come clean to anyone. It’s been a year and a half and it’s time to just let this go. I am going to delete this post and stop receiving notifications. I did talk with my girlfriend about it a few times, but it was a bad idea. She laughed at first, but then got upset about it, so I shut it down quick and moved on. I learned a lesson that I don’t need to confess everything. I did and it messed up my relationship with the only woman I’ve ever cared about.