This week was one of those that makes me wonder why people can’t just be nice! I’ve been chewed out multiple times this week for things I can’t control, and you look at the news and it’s just bad story after bad story – both locally and nationwide. I had a meeting this week in particular where my patience became very, very thin, and afterwards I decided I needed to go look up some happy stories to help turn my mood around. It definitely helped! And in case anyone else needs a little pick me up, I’ve decided to share some of my favorite stories I found. All of these stories happened within the last month.

I saw a story where two men that became friends in a concentration camp during WW2 just stumbled upon each other EIGHTY YEARS after they had first met. They both moved to Ohio after the war – unaware that the other lived only 40 miles away! Eventually, both of them again just happened to move to Florida where they ran into each other at some event and became very emotional. Neither of them even knew the other was still alive. Stories like this make my heart happy, and it’s also crazy to think about how small of a world we actually live in. Here’s the link to the whole story: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/holocaust-survivors-reunite-in-florida-80-years-after-imprisonment/

This next story caught my eye since it was a world record breaking half marathon! The time wasn’t world record breaking, but the runner ran the whole thing while pushing a stroller with his quintuplets in just over two hours. So, not only was he running a long, hard race, but he did so while pushing FIVE other little people!! That’s seriously impressive! The article also mentioned that he had broken another world record back in 2019 when he had pushed those same five kids through an entire full marathon – BUT he didn’t stop at 26.2 miles. He said his wife carried those five children for 27 weeks and 3 days, so he kept running until he had hit 27.3 miles. He said it was probably easy compared to physically carrying them for that long and wanted to honor his wife that way. I thought it was a super sweet story. https://www.today.com/parents/dads/dad-quintuplets-guinness-world-record-marathon-rcna23024

On that same running topic, the Boston Marathon was just a few days ago, and they had a special furry spectator join in the cheering for the fifth year in a row. Spencer, the Golden Retriever was named the “official dog of the Boston Marathon.” Spencer is a trained therapy dog who sits along the course with his cheer gear and has become quite the phenomenon among the runners. AND this year, he came to the race after a year of battling cancer. He is a very cute inspiration! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spencer-boston-marathon-official-dog-therapy-dog-battling-cancer-medal/

Another story I liked was a story about a lady who was teaching classes on how to braid hair, but was struggling to get males to attend. She designed a “beers and braids” class for men only and was selling out in no time! She said the number of dads who would come in to learn how to braid hair was amazing, and the fact that it was an all male class made men a little less hesitant about signing up. Maybe I’ll have to convince Dan to take that class so he can start braiding my hair! 😉 https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/04/21/hair-braid-father-class/

And finally, one other cool story I found this week was about a 13 year-old boy who is graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Minnesota this year, and will be starting the PHD program there this fall. I barely knew which way was up when I was 13! And in Physics, no less! This kid is going places and I can’t wait to hear more about him. https://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/4634/13-Year-Old-To-Start-PhD-Program-In-Theoretical-Physics-After-Obtaining-Bachelor-039-s-Degree

Those are a few of the feel good stories I found this week, and I *hope* there’s a lot more like that out there. Sometimes you have to do some digging, but look for those feel good stories instead of being surrounded by the bad news all the time.

And remember to be nice! It’s not a hard thing to do! You never know what other people are going through, so just live by the golden rule you were taught in first grade: treat others the way you’d want to be treated. I will get off my soap box now.

If you’re feeling the grumpies, go find some feel good stories. I promise it’ll make you feel better – even if only a little bit. 🙂

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger