Yesterday I tried to go for a run with what I now assume to be an upper-respiratory infection. It hurt like hell.

I got home and angrily marched up the stairs, crawled into bed and tried to nurse myself back to health. Five minutes later, Zack came upstairs. Upon seeing how angry I was, he crawled into bed next to me and told me, of all things, that the people in his workgroup that I met over the weekend had told him that I am “a hoot” and that they all liked me.

That’s how I know that Zack really knows me. He didn’t tell me that I was going to get better at running over time, or that it just hurt today cause I was sick. He told me something much more worthwhile, much more important to me. He scooped up my broken ego and said, “people like you.”