I know you're doin' you.

To be authentic for me isn’t just about “doing me.” I mean obviously I do me. It’s me we are talking about. The jump around line dance sleep on the quad wild guy who loves his life and where he is. But for me to be authentic and feel like I’m really living my life I like people to know that it’s me. To trust in what I say and how I act and what I feel is really me, the truth, nothing less. Because to feel trust from my friends is to feel that compassion I talked about before. And when that compassion manifests itself in my relationships, I can truly be authentic. No funny business, no nothing, just me.

And so I feel good when my friends realize I’m not wearing a mask and not being a flake or anything like that. They know that I’m real and that I will tell them how I feel, what I mean, because it’s who I am. And so that trust I love so much I love to give to others. To trust that people are their own genuine light. To say I believe in you. And sometimes I see that they may not be themselves 100% of the time, but they are there waiting to burst out and shine. People are good people I believe and so I spread that love, that trust in humanity that we are all wonderful authentic people.

Yes, I have gotten hurt. But the amazing opportunities I get to have when I sit down with people and discuss their lives outweighs the times when I get accused of being gullible or too open or too trusting. It’s a mutual respect I feel with human’s that they are beautiful people and good people.

I just recently had a conversation regarding a girl who told me she had been beaten by her father and had fake teeth and developed anger and eating issues because of all the awful things that happened to her. I immediately opened my ears and my heart to this girl, gave her my love and my trust, and thanked her for sharing that story with me, for sharing with me that side that many do not see. Now I know it’s not her whole being, but it’s an important part of it that shaped her life. My friend told me one day that she didn’t know if she believed her. My friend thought the girl just wanted attention. That thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I’m not saying she is wrong or right in thinking that. And I’m not saying my way of thinking is wrong or right either. But if in fact she was telling the truth and I would have brushed it off as her being fake, I may never have made the friendship with that girl I now have. We will be forever bonded because I stayed vulnerable to her words and she was just as vulnerable to my thoughts. They were both true, authentic, and beautiful.