Happy Birthday to Our Sunshine!
This year, in addition to our normal birthday appreciation posts, we will also begin small member birthday projects! They will generally include a small project or prompt to help celebrate our seven favorite humans.
j-hope Birthday Project I’m your hope, you’re my hope, I’m j-hope
Hope can appear in small and unexpected places, especially in times when the world feels a little dark. Tell us about something that made you hopeful recently. Share a moment or a picture that brought you hope!
GIVEAWAY
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by ayanbibiyan
16 Comments
The world is a big and often times a terrible, despair filled place but – the day before yesterday I was going to the store and there was an old lady with her Dachshund exiting the store. From the opposite direction you could suddenly hear squeals of joy as two children just sprinted toward the dog. I am not sure who was happier, the kids or the dog that immediately got on her back between their feet and wagged her tail.
Even as I exited the store, they were still petting her and the old lady was just watching them with a smile on her face, not hurrying them or the dog up. Small moments like that always fill me with hope and remind me that world is also a very very beautiful place and that humans are amazing.
Aw this is so lovely! What a great idea mods 😭
My sister in law has had agoraphobia for about four years now; it got so bad at one point that she couldn’t even leave the house if my brother wasn’t home. She’s on medication and has done lots of therapy, but it’s been insanely slow progress.
During her time inside she decided to do an online degree in social care, which she passed with flying colours, and she’s just got a job at a local nursery. It’s such a massive step, it gets her used to being out of the house more and socialising, and the extra income was much needed. I’m just so proud of her for working so hard to get her life back – she’s inspirational 🥹
A fellow army on here reached out and offered to not only carpool, but to buy my ticket with her pre-sale. Thanks to her I’m able to go to the concert this fall. I was literally happy crying.
My neighborhood (in a US city) is organizing for the Fall election to mobilize infrequent voters. This is a brand new effort for us and being with like-minded people who are using proven efforts to impact voting is bringing me all kinds of hope that we will shut the door on the period of lunacy we are experiencing now.
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saeng-il chughahae oppa
This happened just a few days ago on the Friday before Valentine’s Day, but my coworker brought me back to my days in elementary school where you’d hand out little cards and candies to all of your classmates (and collect the ones they brought you and everyone else) by doing the same thing for me and the people in our lab (I work in research). The cards were all space-themed (mine was something like “you’re out of this world”, lol) and he gave us all those Nerd clumps/gummies too. I wasn’t expecting it at all, so it was a nice little surprise. The fact that there are people who think like that close by, and, by extension, in the world at large, makes me hopeful. 💜
In honor of Yoongi’s Tang cat day, I’ll share a cat story that has brought me hope for humanity. 🖤
Today I was at a regular coffee shop. It’s a place with an interior terrace, and for the past few years it has been a cat that hangs out around there all of the time. This cat usually is outside, but today, as it’s winter, the cat was inside. She came right to me as I sat next to her. She sat on my lap and stayed together for about 30′. An old lady came and sat on a couch next to us. The cat recognized her and went towards her. She brought food to the cat. We started talking and she told me she comes everyday and brings her a little bit of food.
This simple interaction with that lady gave me hope. There are still humans with a good heart that appreciate animals. That means a lot to me, it makes me believe a little bit more about the humanity.
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The first time I heard Hobi’s song I Wonder, I cried. I was wondering about my marriage (going through a little rough patch) and that song spoke to me so strongly. I listened to it about five times more and then looked up the translation to be sure of the lyrics. Just what I needed.
Still gets me in the feels every time I hear it. 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Marriage is going well!
I had a baby girl about 5 months ago, and unfortunately the birth did not go as planned. She had to stay in the NICU for over a month, and by the time she came home, I had to go back to work. I have always had to be apart from her every day, and all I want to do is stay at home with her and not have to say goodbye for a while. In this economy and current state of the country ( I live in the US), I have almost given up on that thought, and it has brought me down. However, recently, my husband and I have been trying out ways to allow me to stay home, and we have possibly figured out how to navigate life on a single income! Something that felt so impossible is now within reach, and that has given me hope that I can one day not have to be apart from my baby for a while.
Honestly? My paycheck every two weeks. I was in a bad place in 2024. Couldn’t make friends, couldn’t hold down a job, couldn’t leave my house. But it’s 2026 and I’m clocking in 3 times a week at the community center! The job is kinda boring but the slow pace is really what I need. I see my paycheck and it makes me hopeful for continued success!
Given everything that is going on in the world, it’s really hard to see hope much of anywhere these days. But as I was driving to work last week, I saw a group of students from my high school alma mater walking out in protest of ICE. After a day of doom scrolling and constant bad news, I felt hopeful (for the first time in a *long* time) that the next generation might get it right.
After I made a conscious change in my career it’s been rocky to say the least and the impostor syndrome manifests in so many forms of anxiety almost every week. But today felt hopeful because people reached out. They remembered me. My networking is paying off. I don’t know if this will translate into work but I feel grateful that there are people thinking of me and putting my name out there so that I can have the opportunity to work with them, and maybe this huge risk that I took might be worth it.
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One of my favorite favorite pictures I took from HOTS Final!
It was already such an emotional time with their discharge and then the boys performing and watching in the show the day before… But Hobi’s last show was something else.
It was like watching an artist finally complete a body of work. Something they’ve toiled on and spent sleepless nights over and invested so much of themselves in. You could tell how bittersweet it was for him — heartbroken that it’s his last show but also joy and relief that his tour ended well, his brothers are back, and BTS is finally starting again.
When he sang on stage w Jinkook you could feel how emotionally heavy that moment was. He and Seokjin worked a LOT after their discharge, really kept the BTS spirit alive while also making so many solo milestones. I just felt so proud of him.
HOTS The Final were definitely two of the happiest days of my life, and I’m so thankful for Hobi that he created this moment and this space where everyone in Goyang had a collective moment of joy and healing.
Happiest birthday, our beautiful Hobi!
Honestly? My son. He’s turning one this year and seeing how he approaches everything with wonder and curiosity teaches me to stop and appreciate the small things in life especially with how dark the world feels currently.
My biggest hope recently has been the announcement that Arirang will be shown in the cinema. Me and my bestie couldn’t get tickets for London and I don’t think we will at this point but knowing that we get to sit in a full cinema and sing and cry and laugh and smile and be around the local community is also such an amazing feeling. I’m going to make freebies and get dressed up and have an amazing time. I literally can’t wait. I’m so glad that we all get the chance to enjoy the show even if the queue numbers weren’t in our favour earlier this year 💖💖💖
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Even as interactions seem to be increasingly digital, I continue to be grateful for the human connections that I stumble into courtesy of BTS and ARMY. I played golf with my hubby and kids this past weekend, and we stopped at the snack bar at the halfway point. The young lady behind the counter must have seen my BTS/ARMY keychain and asked, “Do you like BTS?” To which I excitedly replied, “Yes! Are you ARMY too?” And we got to briefly catch up on how we joined the fandom, then we connected on Insta so we can stay in touch. I have met some truly lovely people over the past few years based on our shared enthusiasm for these 7 normal boys from Korea, so stanning BTS has been the gift that keeps on giving 💜