*Featured image contains photo by Genine Alyssa Pedreno-Andrada and hermaion
Living with mental illness is no joke. Every day can be a battle and sometimes it's all a person can do to make it through another day.
No one knows this struggle more than Tiktoker, Lauren (@3angelfac3), who has borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Some days are significantly worse than others and on one particularly bad day, Lauren was hitting rock bottom.
That is, until she discovered a sticky note left by a random stranger. Written on it were seven simple words. To someone else, they may have just been words. To Lauren, they were a lifeline.
The Simple Note a Stranger Left Behind
According to the Mayo Clinic, individuals with BPD often struggle with regulating their emotions, leading to intense and fluctuating feelings that can last for hours or days.
Additionally, research has found that approximately 75% of people with BPD will make at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime, and many will make multiple suicide attempts.
In a now-viral Tiktok with over 725,000 views, Lauren shares that she was experiencing a "really bad BPD episode" when she boarded a train at Manchester Oxford Road Station in the U.K.
Accompanied by the sobering soundbite of Billie Eilish telling Gayle King, "I don't want to be dark, but I genuinely didn't think I'd make it to 17," Lauren explains that she discovered the yellow Post-It when she opened up a fold-out table.
Emblazoned across it were the words, "Be somebody nobody thought you could be," followed by a happy face.
A twist on the quote by motivational guru, Tony Robbins, "Become someone nobody thought you could be - EVEN YOU!!" the words may be simple, but their impact was not.
"When I unfolded the table to put my drink on it, the note instantly put a smile on my face," Lauren said.
The words were exactly what she needed at that time.
The Post-it Note Left a Permanent Impression
Not only did the inspiring message put a smile on her face, but it made a lasting impression — literally. Lauren had it turned into a tattoo — a permanent reminder she'll carry with her forever.
Nearly a year after discovering the note, she's still on a mission to find the person who wrote it so she can thank them. She posted about it on TikTok in the hopes that it will finally reach the stranger who made such a huge impact with something so small.
"Whoever and wherever you are, thank you. I needed to hear it. Your act of kindness meant so much to me. It's with me forever now."
Lauren via TikTok
Paying It Forward
The act of kindness made such a profound impact that Lauren started leaving her own inspiring messages in random places. Calling her kindness initiative, the Safe Space, she creates small parcels containing a bouquet of paper roses and her own message of hope:
"You deserve the love you keep trying to give everyone else."
"I wanted to continue its legacy by leaving my own parcels in random locations for random people to find," she captioned in a follow-up TikTok.
She leaves them on park benches, in building alcoves, and yes, even on trains.
For now, the stranger who left the note remains a mystery. And whoever it was likely has no idea of the impact their small random act of kindness made on Lauren.
But it just goes to show, that words? Really do have power. And while too many times it's the negative ones that affect us the most, positive words can wield just as much power.
Sometimes even more.
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