Thank You

Gratitude: the quality of being thankful; a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

The year is already coming to a close and we know a lot has happened. Life is full of the good, the bad, and the -non-literal- ugly, it's safe to say that life likes to dish out a good mix of the three (sometimes all at once). When prompted to look back on 2022, as with most years recently, the initial reaction probably tends to be something along the lines of “oof.”

We understand th is reaction, but while every year has its difficult times and unfortunate events, there is also a lot of good that happens as well. It’s all about how you frame it. It's easy for negative things to come to mind first, especially when you’re already feeling downbad. However, that shouldn’t cast a dark cloud over the entire year, it might be quite the opposite actually. Let's go back to the word at the top of the page: gratitude. Gratitude is the act of being thankful, it is the warm appreciation you feel when looking at the great things in your life and that life in general has to offer, and it often leaves people in a much better mood. While people were busy posting that they are #grateful they did not always feel that way. Again, gratitude is an emotion. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to move towards feeling grateful, because all you need to do is count your blessings.

“It’s the little things in life.” You’ve definitely heard that before and likely rolled youtube eyes. But time will teach you that it has always been the little things in life. A lot of people want to make it big and watch the sunset from the back of their yacht. Well a yacht costs a lot of money and you can watch the sunset for free from a bench or from your window. Perspective. That's pretty incredible when you think about it right? Life is full of the little things and acknowledging them can make life at least a little better.

There are fun little tricks you can do that will remind you of all the amazing things you have in your life. For example, every time you feel cold water, whether that be from washing your hands, the rain, or the shower, list three things you are grateful for. It doesn’t always need to be grand – most of life isn’t – it just needs to be genuine.

Another aspect of life many seem to take for granted are relationships. That bond you share with other people: be it your family, friends, classmates, or even just that person you always run into but don’t really know. All of those connections are special because out of the millions of people and places in the world, you and that other person happen to be in the same place at the same time, and have this shared experience together. That’s technically a statistical miracle, but because it happens every day we tend to take it for granted. We even take our friends for granted, blowing them off to order takeout and binge a TV show (although sometimes that is peak existence). We should be incredibly grateful for our friends, they are the family we choose or so happened upon. Knowing somebody will be there to make you laugh, smile, support your crazy ideas, and be a shoulder for you to lean on is really incredible. Even knowing that you would happily do that for one of your friends is plenty to be thankful for. If there is somebody you owe a quick thank you to, maybe now is a good time to tell them.

We also wanted to take the time to say thank you. Seriously, this isn’t an obligatory “we’d like to thank our valued customers” type of thank you, we are genuinely thankful for you. If you just like reading our blogs, enjoy our Instagram page, or love our app, we appreciate it. Not everyone has the privilege of having people support their dreams (our dream being to help people create new friendships and connections online) and when over 60 million people continue to support Yubo’s vision, it is pretty hard not to be grateful for that. Every single team and member of Yubo is thankful for our users. You make our jobs fun, challenging, and genuinely rewarding.

With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, if you celebrate, we would like to wish you a happy turkey day (to the vegans too). There is something special about when family and/or friends come together simply to share a meal and their time with each other. We also hope that you will continue to focus on all the little things life has to offer past Thanksgiving, every day is full of them.