What caues so many ExPats to totally embelish (brag) about their past?

[transam]

1 minute ago, marko kok prong said:

Personally i never talk about my ex sas,cia/fbi/Navy seal past.

So you were in the US and UK armies,   wow....

[bazza73]

7 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

Personally i never talk about my ex sas,cia/fbi/Navy seal past.

You are too modest.

[Razzler1973]

It's wherever expats gather, I live in Dubai and this place is also full of ex-SAS and SEALS and Special Forces, ex-football players and players that had trials with top clubs as well as successful businessmen!

 

Other places I have been to, same stories.

 

It amuses me but it's a tad sad but there are sooooo many people doing it. I do wonder if those people consider everything that regular people tell them is half lies too?

[nickmanchester2]

well, its cos is they had decent coin, then they would be able to retire to a decent country so they make stuff up instead about being rich as they are wannabes. 

[elnet1]

If nothing else, there is nobody from the old neighborhood to remind them of how boring of a life they really have led, driving a forklift in a warehouse or toiling 30 years in a takeaway shop. So, when they feel safely away from anyone to cry, "oh bullshit" they proudly regale anyone within earshot of how gallantly they saved the day. My brother is a couple of years older than me and likes to tell the story of how he told MacArthur to say, "I shall return" in the Philippines in 1942.  Seems like he was going to say something like, "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes" or something like that. Quite remarkable as my brother was born in 1959.

 

Also, I was working construction in an Asian country around the turn of the century. A co-worker made the trip to Bangkok and came back completely covered in Harley-Davidson merchandise, down to the "do-rag", lol. It was hilarious! It was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing.  This guy changed his personna from ordinary Joe to a wanna-be tough guy biker, and as everyone knows, there is nothing worse than a wannabe.  But, there was no one from his old life that didn't know he wasn't a biker, didn't even own one, lol.