Hank Green recently posted the video below describing 15 of his favorite feelings:
And I thought I'd take a crack at describing some of mine. Spoiler alert: he and I have a few in common, starting with this first one I tried to transcribe, because he phrased it best:
1. "Opening up and letting somebody that you love see all your broken bits and then they're like, 'I don't mind, those are pretty cool, here are mine too' and you're like 'Yeah, no, I like those! Those are cool! That's fine! We should hold. And hug.' Knowing that yes, this person that you love loves you back and you can trust that and you can know it forever... yeah."
2. Crossing the finish line after a particularly significant race. Or, a particularly grueling one. Even better, watching other people cross the finish line, and seeing the relief, the exhaustion, the pain, and the pride cross their faces all at the same time, especially if it's their first big race or something.
3. Along those same lines, seeing someone else fall in love with a book or movie or whatever that I already love, and bonding with that person in our love for that thing. I suppose this is a big reason why I became a teacher.
4. That moment of snipping off the yarn for the last time, after binding off/securing the last row of a knitted item. Even if there's a bunch of finishing work to do, breaking that yarn for the last time is oh so satisfying :)
5. When there are characters that you're reading about/watching and you REALLY want them to get together, and then they finally DO. (Same thing also with real life people.)
6. "That moment when you realize that you can now do something very easily that a year ago would have been unthinkably difficult"
7. "Having someone you respect tell you they respect you"
8. Making someone else laugh (joyously, not derisively)
9. Hugs. Not the merely-polite hugs between acquaintances where you just kinda tap and go, but REAL hugs from people you love where you practically squish each other, and there are real feelings of affection being transferred between you in that personal contact.
10. The anticipation of seeing a movie adaptation of a book I REALLY love at the first possible showtime. Even if the movie doesn't turn out to be very good, it's that experience of being among the first fans to see it, and you're all sitting in this giant room together because you all love the same thing with a great passion and you're just a FRENZY OF EXCITEMENT waiting for the movie to start.
11. When you take a nap and you wake up feeling better than you did when the nap started. This doesn't always happen, because sometimes naps make you feel worse, or you realize how much of the day you lost and then you feel depressed because you can't get that time back. But when it's a great, refreshing nap, and you wake up feeling like you can take on the world... that's awesome.
12. When you get really inspired to do something - knit, write, clean, etc - and you're working for hours (but the time passes quickly because you're feeling so inspired), and when it's all done and you finally take a breather and look at the fruits of your labor and see how everything came together
13. When the bell rings at the end of the last class on the last day of school, and then all I'm left with is an empty room.
14. Giving gifts to other people, and watching them open them. I get so excited about this that everyone I know usually gets their birthday/Christmas gifts wayyyyyyy before their birthday or Christmas because I just couldn't wait to give it to them.
15. Hitting publish on a blog post that took me a long time to write =P