My boyfriend says

He leaves motivational notes for me almost every day. It started sometime last year when I was working somewhere that I hated and he would leave a post-it note in the car every morning.

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

– C.S. Lewis

Each was a different quote from an author, a social justice activist, motivational speaker, or maybe a politician.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

– Maya Angelou

I started sending pictures of them to a few close friends.

And then it extended to a few more friends. And then those friends asked if they could send them to other friends. I don’t remember who suggested the idea, but I asked his permission to start an Instagram account to share his kindness.

This felt like a weird request because I didn’t want to commercialize something that he was doing for me, but on the other hand, it was such an amazing and thoughtful thing that so many others were benefiting from it too, and so it made sense to share them.

Sometimes he might forget to leave one, and he will text a quote, or other times when he goes out of town for work, he prepares them in advance for me to find each day that he is gone. There are times when he apologizes for missing one, and times when he leaves one that has been left before, but what he doesn’t know is that every single time I am in awe of his ability to love me.

Each note means something special to me and when they also affect someone else, I beam. I feel like even though they are the words of Nelson Mandela, James Baldwin, or Eleanor Roosevelt, it is him picking that specific sentence because he knows what I am dealing with at that time. And when someone else feels the same and needs those same words on that same day, it makes me feel connected to humanity again.

Today I left before he did, and as he was getting ready for work, he called me. He called to tell me that when I walk into a room, I am the strongest person there. He wanted me to know that I am smart and strong, that everyone in the room is aware of it too, and that my presence is necessary. We talked briefly about being a leader and when intimidation or nerves set in to remember that we are all just people, and as we hung up I felt empowered. So this is my attempt at sharing that motivational note with you today.

You are strong and you are smart and your presence is required in every room that you enter.

– Ramone