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10 things that made us smile this week

Four-year-olds doing cute things, animals making epic comebacks, and music, music, music.

happiness

Joy can be found high in the sky or low on the ground.

Happiness is not something our survival-centered brains naturally gravitate towards. We all need help once in a while to shift our mindset with reminders of just how wonderful, hilarious, magical, endearing and truly awesome life on this blue planet can be.

Luckily, there are countless sources of joyful inspiration out there, both IRL and in the virtual realm. At Upworthy, we like to make collecting those uplifting gems just a little bit easier for you with these weekly round-ups. And the funny thing is: week after week, the world provides.

Here are 10 smile-inducing things we've discovered this week. Enjoy!

1. Life is beautiful. Just take it from Scooter, "The World's Ugliest Dog."

If Scooter, a bald 7-year-old Chinese Crested dog with backwards facing hind legs can not only escape certain death to be in a loving home, but make an epic comeback by winning the "World's Ugliest Dog" competition…then perhaps there's hope for us all.

2. Her name is Van Van. She likes to rap. At 2 o'clock, she takes a nap.

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Can you believe this impressive word play is being effortlessly spewed by a four-year-old?! The adorable march and dad's hype up take it to next level sweetness too. Van Van has way more raps where that came from.

3. Wild buffalo returning to their natural habitat on Blackfeet tribal land is a breathtaking sight.

'Absolutely epic': Blackfeet Nation releases wild buffalo on tribal land, returning free-roaming buffalo to their native habitat https://t.co/79S1RiUFbC
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) June 28, 2023

A win for nature. And a win for Indigenous groups. Huzzah.

4. As it turns out, Beyonce's "Single Ladies" is the perfect Blink-182 song

It's the Blink style "na na na"s in lieu of Beyoncé's "oh oh oh"s for me. This diddy is brought to you by Alex Melton, who has all kids of Blink-182 covers. And they're all bangers.

5. May we all enjoy life as much as this 41-year-old at her first ever hip-hop class

It's never too late to try something new.

6. Guy ends up being the only one on his flight, so he decides to party with the crew

@phil.stringer
18-hour delay turned this flight into a private party! ✈️🥳 Watch how the amazing crew and I made the most of it! #americanairlines #flightattendant #airplanetiktok #privateparty #FlightFun #delayedflight #fyp #viral

After a near 18 hours delay, everybody except for Phil Stringer had given up on a flight heading from Oklahoma City to Charlotte. Did that stop him from having the time of his life? Hell no. you can read the full wholesome story here.

7. Gorillas, lemurs and more beat the heat with Pride-themed rainbow ice pops

Happy Pride to humans and animals everywhere. Stay cool, y'all.

8. The family that sings together, stays together.

New Jersey's Sharpe Family Singers wowed the "America's Got Talent" crowd with a sensational cover of "How far i'll Go" from Disney's Moana. But even more inspiring than their talent is the sheer amount of fun they have together on stage.

9. Friends come in all shapes and sizes…including hummingbird size.

You know how they say you attract more bees with honey? The same could be said for nectar and hummingbirds. That's why this clever 4-year-old girl hid herself in a nectar suit to get up close and personal with some bird friends. The sweet experiment proved a success.

10. And last but not least: when anxiety levels are too high, follow this dog's lead and take a chill pill

@barstoolsports Little man is somewhere else 😭 @Son of a Boy Dad ♬ original sound - Barstool Sports

Of course, in this pup's case…there can be too much of a good thing. But even his hilarious "melting face" is enough to put a smile on ours. How about you?

Unlikely couple falls in love after man rents woman’s spare room as an Airbnb

The funny thing about love is that the person we fall in love with, more often than not, we run into by accident. Another strange twist is that the love of our life is likely to show up when we least expect it.

The following story, which feels like the promise of a hit rom-com, comes courtesy of a twist of fate created by the World Cup and an Airbnb.

In 2013, after six years of battling an illness, Ana was living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having been financially drained by years of being sick, she invested the last of her money to buy two bunk beds and convert one of her bedrooms into an Airbnb for small groups of friends.

The Airbnb was a last-ditch effort to pay her rent and medical bills. A year later, the modest investment grew into a success, Ana’s health began to return, and the World Cup, one of the largest sporting events in the world, was coming to Rio.

To take advantage of the soccer fanatics flocking to the Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City), Ana and her roommate, Fabio, turned a half room in their apartment into an Airbnb rental to give tired soccer fans a place to sleep.

“Though it was a small (pantry!) room, we added a bunk bed and listed two beds on Airbnb. One day after the listing went live, we had tons of requests for ‘Fabio’s Pantry,’” she shared. “It was fully booked for the entire World Cup period except for one week in July.”

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Around this time, Ana was feeling well enough to go on her first vacation in years and took a quick trip to Uruguay. Just before she left, Ana received a reservation from a man named "Darko B." for the only unbooked days in July.

“I have always been a big fan of the movie ‘Donnie Darko’ and thought it was a strange coincidence, but didn't think anything of it,” Ana wrote. “I accepted the request, let him know I would not be there for check-in and Fabio would care for him until I was back the following week.”

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Here’s a paycheck for a McDonald’s worker. And here's my jaw dropping to the floor.

So we've all heard the numbers, but what does that mean in reality? Here's one year's wages — yes, full-time wages. Woo.

Making a little over 10,000 for a yearly salary.

I've written tons of things about minimum wage, backed up by fact-checkers and economists and scholarly studies. All of them point to raising the minimum wage as a solution to lifting people out of poverty and getting folks off of public assistance. It's slowly happening, and there's much more to be done.

But when it comes right down to it, where the rubber meets the road is what it means for everyday workers who have to live with those wages. I honestly don't know how they do it.

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Woman with an unfortunate name is a warning for parents to consider before naming their kids

Evidently, this is a big problem.

via TheSam_SHow/TikTok and Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Samantha has trouble every time she gets a new work email.

The recent trend of parents going out of their way to give their children unique names has brought up a lot of discussion on social media. Some of these names sound cute when a child is 5 years old. But will Caeleigh, Zoomer or Rhyedyr look like a serious adult on a job application in a few years?

A recent viral video on TikTok is a unique twist on the current discussion surrounding names. Samantha Hart has a name that doesn’t seem like it would draw any negative attention in professional circles. However, her parents didn’t consider email conventions when they named her back in the late ‘90s when email was new.

“My name is Samantha Hart,” the 27-year-old said. “Most companies use the email designation of first initial, last name, meaning my email would be shart.” For the uninitiated, a shart is an unintentional release when one thinks they only have gas.

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High school marching band direct themselves after they’re left without a director

They had the option to chose another elective or figure out how to keep the band together, they chose the latter.

Photo by Samuel Ramos on Unsplash

High school band directs themselves after teacher quit

Any parent of a marching band kid will tell you that they're a different breed of kids. From July through November, these kids put in hours of work daily in order to perfect their routines for halftime and competitions. They are often at school before the sun comes up and well after it goes down.

Marching band kids become family so when Pocahontas High School in West Virginia found itself without a band teacher, they decided they would figure out a way to keep their band together. The band originally had 38 members but when the band teacher left over the summer the kids were given a choice to find a new elective to replace band or find a way to make it work.

According to The Real WV, many of the kids did pick other electives but 10 kids decided to take their principal up on the offer to stick it out.

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band without director