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By Michael Smith — Reflective MVS
Every year asks something different of us.
Some years are about survival. Some about ambition. Some about healing from things we didn’t know were breaking us until they stopped.
2026 is asking me for intention.
Not resolutions. Not slogans. Not performative optimism. Just a clear-eyed decision about who gets access to my time, my energy, my thinking, and my becoming.
Community isn’t neutral. It shapes you whether you admit it or not.
Alignment Is Not Agreement
I’m not interested in echo chambers. I don’t need everyone around me to think like me, vote like me, or believe what I believe.
What I do need is alignment around values.
Curiosity over certainty.
Accountability over ego.
Growth over grievance.
I want to be in community with people who are willing to learn out loud. Who can sit with discomfort without turning it into hostility. Who understand that being challenged isn’t the same as being attacked.
Disagreement sharpens. Disrespect corrodes.
Uplifting Doesn’t Mean Easy
I’m choosing both.
People who celebrate growth without competing with it. People who don’t need to diminish others to feel relevant. People who know that accountability is an act of care, not control.
Uplifting communities don’t flatter. They fortify.
They tell you the truth early, not the gossip later.
Energy Is Information
I’m paying closer attention to how interactions leave me.
Not just emotionally, but mentally and spiritually.
Some conversations energize. They expand possibility. They leave you thinking deeper, not just louder.
Others drain. They recycle the same grievances, the same half-formed ideas, the same bitterness masquerading as realism.
That’s not depth. That’s stagnation with good branding.
I’m choosing to believe what my body and mind have been telling me all along.
Community Is a Choice, Not an Inheritance
Community isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who is committed to mutual growth, honesty, and care right now.
That doesn’t require perfection. It requires effort.
I’m choosing people who take responsibility for their inner work instead of outsourcing it to everyone around them.
What I’m Leaving Behind
I’m done with proximity that demands silence.
With relationships that require self-erasure.
With conversations that punish nuance and reward noise.
I’m leaving behind spaces where growth is treated as betrayal and clarity is mistaken for arrogance.
That chapter served whatever purpose it served. It doesn’t get a sequel.
A Reflective Moment
Community is not a crowd.
It’s a covenant.
In 2026, I’m choosing people who water what’s growing, not those who resent it for changing the landscape.
This isn’t about exclusion.
It’s about intention.
Reflective MVS
Insights Uncovered
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