2 years ago, that word was "Quality". 

I wanted to begin and live that year ensuring quality friendships, quality interactions, and quality in all the work that I do. 

Lately, that word has popped into my mind a few times over and over. How can I become a higher quality man? More than a man with goals and dreams. But a man that can handle adversity. A man that has high and healthy self-esteem. A man that cares for others. I'm consciously reaching to be a man like that. 

The other thing I've been thinking a lot about is... not everyone is going to like you. No matter how much you try to be a "good person". It is a very common theme that taught to us early on. But why is it such a surprise when you encounter a situation like that. Why does it not prickle less? I think it must be I am trying to rationalize their feelings. 

Now a little over a month ago, I met up with someone who I thought was my friend, but de-friended me from social media just days before. So I thought to myself, oh this will be interesting, and they're being nice to me because we have this person in common. But to my surprise, we enjoyed each others company and felt beyond accommodated. It was the strangest happening. The lesson there was it's hard to see the full picture of someone sometimes, that I shouldn't judge a situation pre-maturely, rather give it a chance to play as it will, and that sometimes I will never know what's really going on or why someone does something, but to live gently to both parties and to see what happens. I thought this person didn't like me for some reason and I made all kinds of rationalizations: they think I'm too gay, they think I'm too fake, they think I spend to much time on social media. But we ended up having a great time. 

Again, weird. 

But in terms of being a quality guy, I've got to be open to what's going on around. Not closed off. Sure someone may not seem to like you, but get curious about it. Maybe there are some things I could improve i'm not aware of. Maybe there's nothing wrong with me at all, and you could be more present and assisting in their life. I'm not sure where I'm going with this anymore. But keep on improving Michael.