On the subject of trash: the downtown YMCA, again; posters versus reality

I don't think the downtown YMCA is planning on taking the trash-cans out to the curb anytime soon even though the trash is building.

I'm glad to be able to say what people who work at or for the YMCA cannot state about what goes on there. They can't put the screws on me.

I used to believe the YMCA posters and slogans.  Now I realize that they are only that [posters] and not a true reflection of what the YMCA is like, only what they would like to make others think it is like.

It was like [I generally eschew such Americanisms] "If that is reality [the posters], then what is wrong with me?"   I couldn't even trust myself.   Now I know it's not me, it's mostly them.  The people who work at the YMCA know it's not really the way it is in the posters.  It must be difficult for them to sustain that contradiction, I am guessing, to go into work everyday and have to pretend.

Imagine:  being paid to lie!   (Well, part of the job must be to...).

I do not pretend.  I don't have to, not any more.

I am real.
Are you?