Last year, my word of the year was appreciation.

That does not mean that this year I won’t be appreciative, I will be, and to start off this post, I want to show some appreciation to my friend, Cindy. We met in the spring of 2013 and three years later, I’m glad she’s still in my life. Yesterday, she dropped off food because her dad and other family members wanted me to have food for Lunar New Year, which is tomorrow, February 8. Cindy is one of the hardest working people that I know and definitely one of the nicest and smartest. I’m glad to have her in my life because she reminds me that hard work does pay off and does not go unnoticed. She’s taught me a lot and I appreciate her for always opening up her home to me!

Anyway, the word of the year for 2016 is integrity.

Why? Because I feel a lot of people don’t know what it means or know how to live by it.

If you’re purposely late, you’re purposely disrespecting the other person. If you purposely flake, it shows that you don’t care. If you don’t care, it will show and people will know. If you can’t live up to your words, you don’t really deserve to be in someone’s life. No one likes a liar. No one likes a fake. People who are true to themselves will be true to others. These are the things that I tell myself.

Last year, I learned to appreciate and expressed my appreciation for others. This may seem like a “Duh” moment, but for someone like me, who rarely expresses her feelings, this was a weird bubble to go in, but now, I can’t imagine not showing appreciation for the littlest things that my friends, strangers, and coworkers do for me.

This year, I adamantly want to stick to my goals and most importantly, my words. As an aspiring writer, I value my words and I truly believe that if I give someone my word, I must stick to it or it has no value.

As someone who treasures and seeks the truth, if I want the truth, I must be the truth. Like I said, if I want good friends, I must be a good friend myself. As I get older, (laughs embarrassingly because I’m only 21) I have realized what’s really important and friendship is definitely one of the things in life that makes it worthwhile.

Now, I take friendships so seriously that I am willing to let the bad ones sink so that the better ones can breathe. In my small heart, there aren’t a lot of people that I can cherish – that’s the way I’ve unknowingly constructed myself – and there’s only room for people who are genuine, people who stay true to their hearts, people who live their lives for themselves, people who stick to their word, in essence… people who have integrity.