Hey, hey, everyone. Hoping everyone is good. Hoping everyone is great. Listen, about,

hmm, about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, I wrote this poem and Scott, if I'm an option,

don't pick me. And it was a bold declaration to myself and also to anyone else to not be in the space to be okay with being someone's option.

And I know that there are circumstances which we will be an option, you know, in a pool of a career.

You know, we are candidates to get a position and a job.

There will be an option.

But when it comes to relational things like friendships and relationships, there is an assertion

that we, especially relationships, we want to be someone's only, that we should not limit ourselves and being in a space of deliberation where someone gets to kind of decide on however we show up if it's good enough for them you know that's an ego trip

and that sometimes people hold and so the poem i'll give you a little bit of it um the poem goes if

i'm an option don't pick me don't weigh me on the scale of convenience or rationalize why

another option might serve you better. I was never meant to be

compared. I was meant to be chosen. And love is not a pros and kinds list. It's not a side-by-side

comparison of who texts back fast. Who looks good on paper, baby? I'm not paper. I'm flesh, beard and some fire. And you don't

analyze fire. You respect it or you burn. And again, for anybody to say that out loud, it sounds

very bold. And it might even sound a little harsh to a lot of people, but I also want to walk through that

statement because, you know, it's not about arrogance. It's definitely about alignment. It's about

our self-respect and it has a lot to do with emotional safety because there is a difference

between being chosen and being available to be selected if nothing

else works out and too many of us have lived our lives accepting, you know, what feels like love,

but really is just convenience.

And let me start by making something very clear.

There are areas in life where being an option is normal.

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