50 Times People Found Unexpectedly Wholesome Posts On The Internet Where Strangers Had Each Other’s Backs (New Pics)
You know, Pandas, it’s really way too easy to focus just on the negatives. In fact, we’re hard-wired for that. It’s called negativity bias and it means that we dwell on the awful things that have happened to us more than the awesome ones. So with all the news about just how bad things are looking recently, you’d be perfectly right to be anxious and upset. However, we shouldn’t forget that, at the same time, life’s full of beauty, wonder, and wholesomeness. Albus Dumbledore told us that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, but we have to remember to turn on the light. Well, let’s turn that light on, shall we?
Today, we’re featuring the best posts from the r/gatesopencomeonin subreddit, a 356k-member-strong community that celebrates people acting excellent and being wholesome to each other. It’s the kind of stuff that really restores part of your hope in humanity. And it’s a reminder that we have to strive to be altruistic and kind, especially when things are looking tough.
Upvote your fave pics as you’re scrolling down, Pandas. And tell us all about the nicest thing you’ve done for someone recently, in the comments. Meanwhile, check out Bored Panda’s interview about how to live a happy and healthy life, as well as how to be nice to others when we don’t feel like it, with writer Ariane Sherine, the author of ‘How to Live to 100’ and ‘Talk Yourself Better.’
Oh, and if you’d like some more proof that people totally have the potential to be awesome, take a peek at our earlier articles about the ‘Gates Open, Come On In’ community here: Part 1 and Part 2.
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I Needed To Hear This. I'm So Tired
A Guide To Gift Giving
A Surprise Happy Ending?
The ‘Gates Open, Come On In’ subreddit has been delighting redditors (and more!) around the globe since early 2018. In the 4+ years since being founded, it’s carved out a niche of wholesomeness, hope, and good vibes by being the polar opposite of r/gatekeeping.
They only have two rules: there’s no gatekeeping allowed and you have to be nice. That’s it. Really. It’s a pretty straightforward recommendation for living a good life, isn’t it? Besides, it’s refreshing when you focus on the positives for a change, isn’t it?
Better Late Than Never
The last sentence explains it perfectly. Although there is an expiration date and that is death.
Remember, Everyone Has A Purpose
An Email From My Computer Science Teacher, Who I’m Not Even Taking A Class With This Semester. Genuinely Want To Cry Rn
(Probably) everyone wants to live a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. But it’s a hard thing to do in practice, especially when you’re bound by doubt, anxiety, and fear. Bored Panda reached out to author Ariane, who has written about health and happiness, to understand what contributes to our satisfaction with life the most. Really, it’s mostly about altruism and having a tight-knit social circle (among a few other things).
“Close, fulfilling relationships with others are one of the most important things when it comes to happiness, whether romantic or platonic. Studies show that the more close friendships and relationships you have, the longer you live,” Ariane shared with Bored Panda. “Volunteering and helping others are also likely to make you happy.”
Be Free To Like Things
Me: yeah, I'm really into real ales and metal music. Rando: oh really? What year was the first IPA sold internationally and what blood type is James Hatfield?
One Letter Makes All The Difference!
This Made Me Really Happy
Other things that play an important role in our overall happiness include being fit, having a fulfilling career, and not focusing on the material side of things too much.
“There are other things that contribute to happiness and well-being including taking regular exercise, eating healthily, having enough money to feel comfortable, having job security, and enjoying experiences rather than possessions,” the writer explained.
True Spirit
Making A Kid’s Day!
Just Let Them Be They
“Self-care and taking time for yourself are also very important. But I'd say close relationships are probably the most essential things to happiness,” she stressed what we should all be focusing on the most.
It’s easy to be kind to someone when we’re feeling great, the sun’s shining, and it’s like we’re on top of the world. It’s far harder when we’re miserable, exhausted, and feeling down. Bored Panda wanted to get Ariane’s advice on how to be nice to someone when we’re down in the dumps and overwhelmed with problems.
Unexpected Coming Out Story
Never Walk Without A Bro
Grandmas Are Always A Bastion Of Wholesomeness
“It's worth remembering that being kind to others can also lift you up too. In fact, the easiest way to take your mind off your own problems is to help someone else with theirs,” she said.
“But if you're feeling really lethargic and low, the best thing is probably to sleep, or at least rest,” the author pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with getting some well-deserved rest. Getting some proper sleep is a piece of advice that really deserves more attention than it gets.
Wear Whatever Makes You Happy!
So many schoolboys protesting their school's dresscode by wearing skirts (not allowed to wear shorts in the heat). Why not just keep the skirt? They are amazingly comfortable in the summer :)
Liberal Arts
I Love Sharing My Book Collection
We were also curious about how people can control their anxiety better, especially if they’re worried about the economy, the war, and the pandemic. Ariane shared some of her thoughts about becoming more resilient during tough times. The important thing here is to control what you can and to let go of what you can’t affect.
“It's a matter of doing what you can to make your own situation better, and then accepting that you can't control everything,” she said. “You can never control everything, and trying will make you even more anxious. But you can control certain things to reduce your risk.”
On A Cathedral Door
Shared Spaces
A Grown Man Indeed
Love this! I can’t imagine that’s not the response she usually gets
Ariane gave an example of how this works: “For instance, I wear an FFP2 mask on the train to work because I can control that, but no one else wears one these days. So it's possible that I'll still get Covid as no one else is masking up, but I just have to accept that, because my train journeys are essential.”
Custom Veganism
My Music Taste
This is so me. My playlist can go from Metallica to Backstreet Boys to Beethoven's 5th
During an earlier in-depth interview, Suzanne Degges-White, Licensed Counselor, Professor, and Chair at the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University, shared with Bored Panda how our family values, spiritual beliefs, and even our biology all play a crucial role in our altruistic actions.
"Many of us are raised to believe it is the 'right thing to do.' Basically, all spiritual belief systems have a version of the 'Golden Rule, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ "We also do good turns because we know that one day we may be in need of a little 'generosity from the universe,' so it's like putting 'money' into a karma account," she shared how people think.
Easy Come, Easy Go
This Dad Is A Legend
Rob Zombie Taking On Anyone Who Wants To Gatekeep Metal
"Lastly, humans are wired so that when we do something kind for another, we feel good about ourselves and neurotransmitters like endorphins and oxytocin have been shown to get a boost when we do something good for another. It is through cooperation that society functions, so the survival of the human race depends on being willing to help others. Family values, spiritual beliefs, and biology all play a part in this motivation," the professor explained to us.
What A Great Sign
Ok Zoomer
"Many of us take pride in being of service to others as it is culturally valued and we want to hold significance in our worlds. So when we do good deeds, we show others our willingness to help those in distress/need; we live out faith-based encouragement to treat others the way we would like to be treated, we uphold family values, and our brains get a positive jolt of happiness when we help others.”
Tiredness
Fixed A Stupid Meme
Your Trauma Is Valid
Everyone Gets To Complain About The Weather
Honestly, apparently some other countries have been mocking us in the UK for not being 'able to handle the heat'...WE'RE NOT CONDITIONED FOR IT! Most of us vary between glow-in-the-dark white and cooked lobster red! WE ARE GOOD AT RAIN!
Klingons Kinda Inclusive
its a very good analogy for trans people i suppose Klingons dont care what gender you are as long as you a warrior with honour
It's For All Of You
Do What You Like
in that case, i will leave the note stickers on my piano keys, and continue to play with one hand, until i am ready to play with both hands 😁
Reading Goals
I needed this. I only just completed my 3rd book for the year - its been difficult to find time to sit and read. I am trying to fill more time by reading rather than being online. I hope to have read at least 5 books by the end of the year
Melon Flavored Jellyfish's Mom Says The Gates Are Open
Opening The Gates To Readers Of All Ages
I've just read two books for kids with spooky short stories. They were amazing, so I had my daughter read them. Now we're discussing them together, and there's nothing better in the world 😍
That's fantastic. When I was in my 20s, I bought my 12 year old cousin, who wasn't into reading, a book I thought he'd enjoy for Christmas (Percy Jackson). We were camping at the time and I finished whatever I was reading and we both took turns reading his book. This led to us both reading the whole series and other books by the author. Now he reads even more widely and recently lent me a whole bag of books, which will take me more than a year to read :)
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I agree wholeheartedly with that sign. I've never quite understand the whole concept of "young adult books". Aren't you limiting the potential audience by stating the industry's target audience? Who even makes the decisions: "yeah, this is a young adult book".
Tbh, it makes it easier for young adults. Adult books are often with other themes and a heavier language, so I guess the labelling is mainly thought as a guide, not an exclusion. I believe the author makes the decision.
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I love children and young adult books, they are often more imaginative and unpretentious.
this! in children's book stories can just be stories for the fun of it and it's sometimes so much better than adults books that always seem to have to carry depressing themes!
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my mum always told me, i'm too old for young aduldt books (when i was around 20). But i think, young adults is just the starting age? like the books for 8y.o.+ are also for kids who are 10 years and older?
This! I always saw it as just a recommendation. You can read children book at the age of 6, 12, 20, 35, 50 or 80. It doesn't matter!
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Wonderful! I haven't been in the YA age category for a long time, but I vastly prefer them to 90% of the adult fiction. YA books have similarly profound themes, but none of the boring pretentiousness - and stuff actually happens in them! There is adventure! Romance (and not just s*xual violence)! Fun! Let's not forget that YA actually has fun in it.
I read quite a lot of YA books. I struggle with reading now due to some of the medication I am on and find that YA is a nice compromise as the language generally isn't quite as complicated as some of the other books I used to read. They are also printed in a slightly bigger font which helps me so much. My current favourites are The Chronicles of Ixia by Maria V Snyder.
I'm a huge YA fan! It's not as heavy as a lot of adult fantasy but much more grown up than kids books
Every middle school teaches To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s one of my all-time favorite books that I reread every year. I first read Little Women when I was a young girl. It’s another book I reread often. It is amazing just how different the story is when you read it at a different age and with more life experience than the last time you read it. THAT’S the glory of reading well-written classic literature, written by authors who really understand human nature and human experience.
Two of my favourite books :) One of the series I want to re-read for that reason is Tomorrow when the war began. I think the new world context will make it even more interesting.
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Honestly 'young adult' has been invented since I was in my twenties. I understand why, I'm not criticising, but before them these books would have been just out on the shelves with all the others. Like 'teenager' and 'toddler' there's no scientific fact behind these divisions, it's literally just marketing.
I'm still mad that when I was 13 the librarian shooed me out of the children's section, as I was reading picture books...picture books are for all ages and at 24 I enjoy them still!
I love YA because I don't have to deal with all the gratuitous sex that seems to be mandatory in adult fiction
I've read Harry Potter several times, and I was "too old" for it when it came out.
I’ve worked in a library for 8 years and loved the young adults section and took the opportunity to read some childhood classics as well.
some of the best books I've read are young adult; check out Diana Wynne Jones and Robert Westall, and there are many more better even than Tolkien.
One of my favorite children's books is Varjak Paw and its follow up book; one day I was in the children's section trying to find the 3rd book in the series (there isn't one, sigh) - someone approached me and asked me if I needed any help using 'that' tone of voice (loud, high-pitched, slow words) used to speak to young children (I am 73). It was an interesting interaction but got cleared up when I explained the situation. I suggest everyone read the Varjak Paw books
i almost exclusively read kids books now. they are amazing. for years i read adult books, and i mostly didn't enjoy them. i do love me some fantasy though. but i just find myself so much more engaged by childrens books (usually those aimed at ages 8+), and excited when i find new ones to read :D
i am sight impaired now that i am older, i cant read well at all. no fun. i rediscovered a bunch of the type of book i read as a tween, the print is much larger, i can read them!
Young Adult books are great. They read well, and the stories are interesting. ( I mean they flow easily, there's a rhythm to the sentence structure that's easy to read.)
I have bought and read teen books and I am 30 with 25 extra years of experience.
I'm a big, Mohawked 43yr old bus driver, and I always check out the YA section in the library because I have often found some great reads in there! A good story is a good story.
I'm a 30 year old librarian. I'm also the one in charge of the YA section of our county library. Most of my check outs are YA. I find that the themes and ideas are better than a lot of the adult fiction we have, and we have manga/western comics, and more fanciful content than a lot of the standard fiction section.
I still love many YA novels and reread them regularly, including the above shown book from Terri Windling's "shared universe" Bordertown series, which I'm rereading right now.
Since I started reading ya with my kid, so we could discuss books, I've read more than I have since I was a teen. fiction is fun again! Keeper of the Lost cities, Magnus Chase, Shadowhunters... Can't wait to reread mists of Avalon now!
Let's put it this way, I'm hitting 40 soon and still read Goosebumps. It's supposed to be scary but sometimes come across as cheesy which I like. Gatekeepers are c**p so let no soul put a gate on books either.
I think every adult should read China Mieville's "Un Lun Dun", an amazing book by an amazing author.
And honestly it sometimes feels like in order to be adult fiction a book must be incredibly dark, graphic, and horny. And I'm just not so interested. I just want something well written that doesn't make me miserable
I've got so many YA novels in my collection. I love the stories and I live that I don't have to sit through chapters of nothing but fking (looking at you Laurrel K.) For my story.
I've read John Flanagan's Rangers apprentice series a couple of years ago in my thirties and those were amazing, I recommended them to my husband and he absolutely loved them too.
I still love YA fiction, and I'm not [that] young. I still love The Chronic[What!c]les of Narnia, and I'm not a Christian. I still love Tolkien, and I'm not a Hobbit.
Im 34 and I recently re-read The Neverending Story. And you know what? That book is better written and had better message than 90% of adult literature. F**k abstract limits. Books are great. And reading stuff you're not a target for can just broaden your horizons.
A good story is a good story, no matter what audience it is intended for!
I had to sign in on my work PC to say, for anyone looking for a new reading binge, the book by Garth Nix, bottom left, is, I think, Lirael (Second in the old kingdom trilogy, third if you read them chronologically) but 100% worth a read. I got stupidly excited when I found the latest instalment available to buy, like, I, being a (at the time)27 year old, jumping up and down like it was the newest Harry Potter and I was a die hard fan.
👀 me trying to see the titles and authors so I can find a new series to start
At my public library, they keep the children's and young adults' fiction in a separate area, and if you're an adult without a child wandering around in there, they do question you. I realize they're just trying to protect the children, but it makes me sad. Sometimes I want to re-read my childhood favorites without being questioned.
Ambisexual
Gotta Clean Up
I'm Sure Many Of Us Needed To Hear This
F*****g THIS! Everyone has something different that they can do . Sometimes it's petitions ,sometimes it's protests,sometimes it's writing letters ,sometimes it's survival,sometimes it's education. The only path that isn't ok is turning a blind eye to the problem.
Vegan BBQ
Slap Some Dang Rice
Nice Flex
We love a mob psycho 100 reference! A really great and wholesome manga/anime too
Metallica Welcomes Everyone
It's A Big Ask But I'm Behind It
Note: this post originally had 104 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I learned a lot from this list. I didn't realize i do so much gatekeeping, and i want to decrease it.
Hey when you know better you do better and it's cool you realized it now!
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Friendly reminder: downvotes are NOT dislike buttons. Downvoting a comment just because you don't agree = not cool. If a comment gets downvoted, its author will get banned from the site. So please downvote only in case of obvious spam ("how to make cash") or if someone is literally harrassing a fellow panda
Damn. One downvote that could be a mistake or petty revenge gets the author banned? That sucks.
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I learned a lot from this list. I didn't realize i do so much gatekeeping, and i want to decrease it.
Hey when you know better you do better and it's cool you realized it now!
Load More Replies... Friendly reminder: downvotes are NOT dislike buttons. Downvoting a comment just because you don't agree = not cool. If a comment gets downvoted, its author will get banned from the site. So please downvote only in case of obvious spam ("how to make cash") or if someone is literally harrassing a fellow panda
Damn. One downvote that could be a mistake or petty revenge gets the author banned? That sucks.
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