02/17/2021 - 10:47 a.m.

I had a kind of breakthrough today. And it all started when I accidentally overheard my girlfriend talking about me with her friends.

She spoke glowingly -- kind of what you'd expect, but still nice to hear. She didn't know I was listening -- I 'd just accidentally come into the apartment when she was in the middle of a phone conversation in the other room. And it gave me glow, and I was thinking about it the next morning. And then I had kind of a breakthrough...

There are other people who've liked me. And I just, inside, don't accept it. Maybe everyone does that, but it's a big moment when you just finally have to admit it to yourself: they do. Make a list in your head, all the others over the years, through your life -- that liked you too. Enough to remember, one by one...

Enough to believe.