100 Very Specific Reasons to Be Alive

Life is good, and often for very special, tiny, specific reasons. Here are mine.

1. The feeling of well-being after sport
2. The soft lips of the person you love against yours
3. The smell of pizza
4. The feeling of drinking water when you’re really thirsty
5. Taking off your shoes to put your feet in the sea
6. Reading a book so good that you come out of a trance two hours later
7. Laughing alone in public because you just thought of something funny, and having to bite your lips to keep from looking crazy
8. Coming home and being filled with a sense of satisfaction about the day you’ve just had
9. Blaring(орать) the lyrics of a song(текст песни) while driving alone in your car
10. Putting on your favorite underwear in the morning
11. Having lunch or dinner on the terrace
12. Going to your parents’ house
13. Hearing the song of the cicadas for the first time in the season
14. Waking up to the first rays of sunlight entering the room
15. Receiving good news
16. Going home, being alone, making yourself a good dinner, and eating it in front of your favorite TV show
17. Taking a nap after lunch (or why not after breakfast)
18. Picking up someone you love at the train station
19. Realizing that you look pretty good today
20. Walking out of the hair salon with a clean cut
21. The atmosphere of vacation departures(отпускные поездки)
22. Waking up before dawn and realizing you can go back to sleep for a few hours
23. Experiencing mindfulness
24. The smell of coffee
25. Taking a cold shower in summer
26. Waking up and finding croissants(круасаны) on the breakfast table that someone who got up early went to get
27. Finishing work early and doing something nice in the late afternoon
28. Sunrises
29. Sunsets
30. Putting on(надеть) something you feel comfortable and sexy in
31. The evening air cooling off after being hot all day in the summer
32. When Spotify randomly puts your three favorite songs in a row
33. When you’ve had a bad day and someone takes care of you at night
34. Massages
35. Feeling in harmony with yourself
36. Jumping for joy
37. Looking back and seeing how much you have evolved or gotten better on this or that point
38. Having a perfect night’s sleep
39. Laughing so hard you cry
40. Film photography
41. Having lunch at your grandmother’s house
42. Taking your grandmother to a restaurant for lunch
43. Eating comfort food without feeling guilty
44. Finding out that your efforts have paid off
45. Receiving an opportunity you’ve been dreaming of
46. Tasting a new dish
47. Getting a new tattoo
48. Dyeing(покраска) your hair the color you’ve always wanted
49. Receiving a compliment, from a stranger or someone you love
50. Dancing like nobody’s watching
51. Take a like for next video)

1. Feeling the naked body of the person you love against your own naked skin
2. Traveling alone
3. Traveling in good company
4. Spending quality time with your brother or sister
5. Meeting a friend for a drink after a long week at work
6. Realizing that you have a common passion with a friend, then practicing it together
7. Putting on sunscreen(солнцезащитный крем) and forgetting a small spot, and realizing that the spot got sunburned, so thankfully you remembered to put sunscreen on the rest of your body
8. The smell of a perfume that suddenly brings back a memory
9. The smell of a perfume that suddenly brings back a memory
10. Christmas Eve
11. Realizing that the photo you just took is great, that it accurately captures the essence of a person, or that it freezes an action impossible to reproduce
12. The warm feeling of the sun on your skin
13. The feeling of fulfillment that you get at your favorite artists’ concert when you sing and dance and feel carried by the energy of the moment
14. The long walks alone, with or without music
15. Realizing how much your body does for you
16. Eating ice cream from a cone(рожок) while walking by the sea
17. Receiving a letter
18. Spending time in a bookstore
19. Buying books
20. Seeing fireflies(светлячков)
21. Going to the funfair(ярмарка с атракционами)
22. Having accomplished something that was important to you
23. Making someone laugh
24. Feeling happy and grateful to be alive
25. Singing and hitting a certain note and being surprised at yourself
26. Taking up a hobby you haven’t done in years
27. Learning something new
28. Seeing a rainbow
29. Repeating the joke of the moment that keeps making your mom laugh
30. The sound of a soda(газировка) can being opened
31. Successfully pranking someone
32. Ordering food at the drive-through and eating in your car in the fast-food parking lot with your significant other, music playing and windows open
33. Sitting on the sand of a quiet beach and looking at the sea, preferably at the end of the day
34. Looking at the stars and perceiving the immensity(необъятность) of the universe and the mystery of life
35. The beautiful plays of light
36. When your pet spontaneously climbs on you asking for love
37. The smell of a cake baking in the oven
38. When you arrive home and your partner or your mother or father has cooked your favorite dish
39. Surprises
40. Pancakes
41. Mixing two foods that don’t normally go together and finding out that it’s delicious
42. When you find a banknote in your pants pocket
43. When you’ve just finished cleaning and your house is spotless(безупречный)
44. When you cook a dish for the first time and it’s delicious
45. When you make eye contact at the bar with someone you think is cute
46. Arriving at a restaurant, saying you have a reservation, and discovering you got the best table
47. Surprising someone
48. Feeling loved
49. Going to bed on clean sheets
50. Lying in the grass when it’s a little cool