Taking off your bra after a long day of work. Holding hands with someone you love. Seeing a sunset in colour for the first time. These are just a few of life’s little joys that we are shown from time to time; they remind us of the goodness all around us and fill us with inspiration, hope, and laughter.
People on Reddit were asked: “What was your greatest feeling?” These are some of the best answers.
My wife and I had tried to have a baby for 5 years and had gone through a lot of pretty rough times with miscarriages and disappointment. When my first daughter was finally here and everything was ok, I was the first one to actually get to hold her. She opened her eyes and gave a little smile at me, then went back to sleep. That was my greatest moment.
martlet1
My first day after I finished Chemo. The entire world was brighter, colors were more vivid. I knew, intellectually, that nothing had changed, I was still suffering from side effects of chemo and I was only marginally more cured than the day before. The euphoria was just surreal, though. Everything was just more real, more happy, more good.
On that note, the second best feeling was when I finally got to 5 years out with no evidence of disease. To be told that my odds of re-occurrence are virtually 0, that was a great day.
law18
I’m only 17 so I haven’t had much experiences like that but the best feeling for me was when I drove my awesome car for the first time by myself that I had to work 3 hard years prior to getting.
nidi617
I haven’t had very many amazing moments in my life, but I did have a pretty good one recently. I was having a really crappy day at work, came home, and went to get a soda out of the fridge. Sitting inside the fridge, for no apparent reason, was a cold, fizzy gin and tonic with a lime wedge on the rim.
I have no idea how it got there, and I frankly don’t want to know. I prefer to believe that reality made a tiny exception for me that day.
nickiter
I was writing a program in college for an AI class, the program was over 14000 lines of code, and it compiled without error the first time and furthermore ran flawlessly without any need to debug. I was so happy that I fell to my knees and cried a little.
CoAmon
My wife had a full term stillbirth on my 30th birthday. It was the worst day of my life. 4 years later after trying and failing to have a child, we traveled to Guatemala after a year of adoption paperwork and crap. We were waiting in a hotel room in Guatemala City pacing back and forth waiting for the knock on the door. We had only seen pictures of him at 3 weeks of age, he was now 6 months old.
In my haste and nervousness I paced out front of the hotel and saw the cutest baby I had ever seen, and I hoped it was my son. A few minutes later the door knocked, and they brought my son Jake to my wife and me. We cried tears of pure joy. That was March 26, 2002. I can’t believe my son is 10. He has trouble watching the video of his parents crying because he couldn’t understand they were tears of joy.
Ruddiver
This probably sounds trivial, but my greatest feeling (to date) was the day I woke up and realized I didn’t want a cigarette.
linds360
When I got that popcorn kernel out from under my tooth. It was in there for weeks.
ckalibur345
My greatest feeling to date was with my dad. I had just gotten off work from an internship in college. I was walking up to the house and my dad had just drove up from work. It was Friday and we both had our favorite 12 packs of beer under are arms. We worked on opposites sides of town but every Friday stopped by a liquor store to grab our beer.
We preceded into the garage where their is a mini fridge we keep up beer in. My father is the hardest working man I have ever met, working tirelessly to help me pay for college and doing everything he can to raise me the right way. In the garage we both crack a beer and starting complaining about our days. My dad who I have never seen cry got tears in his eyes, looked at me and told me he loved me and how proud he was of me. The happiest I have ever felt.
Overmyej
Making it to the 6 month mark in my pregnancy with my daughter. I’d had 6 miscarriages and lost 7 babies in the 6 years before that day, and was told I would never be able to carry her to term. At the 6th month mark (all of my miscarriages happened between conception- 5months), I finally allowed myself to really breathe. She’s going to be 18 next month, and she’s awesome.
sweetmercy
Six years ago when I decided I was done with the opiate abuse. When I knew I was done torturing myself.
koshercowboy
When I got a text from my now husband saying “You should come back here, with me.”
We had been together for almost 4 years, then broken up for over 2. I couldn’t deal with being in Detroit, where we had all the same friends and I had to see him all the time, so I moved to Chicago. I had a roommate who lied about how much money he made and stole all my rent money, leading to me losing my apartment a year after I had moved. I texted my now husband to tell him what had happened, and was sitting on the train going to my sister’s house, trying to keep myself together. I got the message and started crying uncontrollably on the train.
I moved back to Detroit a month later, and he came and picked me up. He told me, “Leaving you was the biggest mistake I ever made, and I will never do it again.”
We have been married for almost 3 years, have a beautiful 1 year old daughter, and I have never been so happy in my life.
Spattie
(1/2) My greatest feeling is also my saddest and most painful. My cousin was diagnosed with bone cancer in his femur at age 15, he got through it and became the nicest young man ever. He was stunning (I’m male, and even admit this lad was fine) and got all the girls, was never rude, was never anything negative. He just saw life as being a big adventure, he would always have a smile on his face. I’m not even looking at it through rose tinted glasses, this lad was loving life and was a great person.
Then, at age 20 the cancer came back. With vengeance, in his brain, lungs and bones. Basically, it was end game.
He lived in Germany, I was in the UK, so when I last saw him before the cancer came back he was such a happy lad, jumping around, playing cards, drinking beer with us. I went back after the tumours were growing, and he could hardly walk. Every movement he made was shaky, and he couldn’t talk very well. But he still smiled, he still hugged us and he still wished us well. His parents had split, and it was one of the rare moments they were all together, so I snapped a photo of him, his sister, and the parents sitting in the sun. He left the family get together early to go back to hospital, but made sure he’d hugged everyone before he left.
After that he deteriorated, he could no longer leave his bed, and his short term memory was about 2 minutes. He was in a special bed in his mother’s home, with a beautiful view of the rolling hills and fields of Germany, truly idyllic. I would hear stories of how he would suddenly get better one day, then go so much worse the next. We went to Germany for my grandmother’s funeral (she always said that she would not be able to live with herself if she was still alive for his funeral) and my brother and I went to see him.
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(2/2) When we walked in he turned and looked at us, his body shaking involuntarily, his eyes couldn’t stay still. He took a moment but then a broad smile spread across his face, and he asked us, “You came all the way from England to see me?” (He was told that Oma had died, but he couldn’t remember) so we said “Yes.” I have never seen someone so full of love, he beckoned us closer, and gave my brother and I a hug that really did just say “goodbye.” We sat and talked with him but he couldn’t make very much conversation, he just kept saying how happy he was to see us ‘one last time.’ You could see the cancer on his chest, the tumours protruding and making impressions in his t-shirt. My uncle, retired, would look after him during the day when his mother went to work. His left hand was permanently curled up as if in so much pain.
We left the room and came back about fifteen minutes later… he looked at us, took a moment, then a broad smile spread across his face. He asked us, “You came all the way from England to see me?”
That was when my heart broke. But it was such a great moment, because he knew we loved him, and we knew he loved us, and he looked so happy.
He died a few months later in his sleep, I did a headcount at his funeral. 251 people turned up, the chapel was packed, people were outside in pure silence. Nearby builders put down their tools for the duration of the funeral out of respect, then we took turns to say goodbye at his grave which his ashes were placed into. So many people were crying, his girlfriend was distraught. She’d stuck by him through everything. My brother and I broke down at the grave, and I’ve never seen my dad cry so much. My mother was very stoic and German about it all, but she couldn’t hold back tears.
But it was a great moment, simply because there was so much love, I’ve never seen so much love, it was overwhelming. A group of his friends sang by his graveyard, it was so hauntingly beautiful, that they could just muster up the love to sing. Everything was perfect. And now I’m crying from remembering it all. Rest in peace, cousin, 21 is no age at which to die.
He and I started a thing a few years ago, in which we name our video game characters after each other. It was a joke to begin with, but knowing that he’s ‘with me’ in Skyrim keeps him alive.
[Deleted]
15 years ago today, I was told that my mom had died. Watching her walk through the door was the greatest feeling I’ve ever had.
A tornado destroyed about a fifth of the small town I grew up in. As I assume is the case in any natural disaster, there was a lot of misinformation. A state trooper talked to my neighbor and informed her that a nursing home had been destroyed and everyone in it had died, without realizing that my mom was a nurse there.
She came over to tell us. I was in 7th grade. My dad refused to believe her and went looking for my mom. The National Guard was there keeping people away from the worst of the destruction, but after my dad cried and begged on his knees, someone from the Red Cross gave him a little red and white sticker to let him pass. He found my mom helping with the rescue efforts.
All of the phones were down, so they weren’t able to call us or anything. I was sitting at the table crying, when suddenly he opened the door and my mom walked in, covered in blood and dirt. Absolutely the happiest day of my life…
Dovienya
I was one week from my due date and during a control at my midwife she noticed it was the third consecutive visit that my belly hadn’t grown.
We were taken to the hospital were we learnt that I had very little amniotic fluid left and that my baby wasn’t feeling well at all. They took me to monitor his heart and my contractions. When the first contraction hit his heart rate nearly went down to half. I was told he wouldn’t survive another contraction.
They ripped off all my clothes, pushed me into the delivery room and gave me a Caesarian. I was put under and woke a couple of hours with the worse pain in my life.
No one would tell me if I was a mother, if the baby was alive. Their silence scared me into thinking something was wrong. Then I saw my fiancs face, walking through the door. He looked so pained, I knew for sure we’d lost it.
I was still drowsy and could barely move, he took my hand and I could see the tears in his eyes. Here it comes, I thought. “What happened? It didn’t make it?” He looked at me surprised.
He looked pained because he saw in how much pain I was, and he figured someone had already told him about our beautiful son.
My greatest feeling in the world? Holding my 4 pound son for the first time.
viramola
When I got good grades in my final exams. Jumping up and down screaming ‘I’m going to college ma!’ while I hugged my mother, pretty good feeling.
cuntxo
On my wedding day, about three hours after the reception ended, my wife and I sat in the restaurant at the Hilton Hotel at the O’Hare airport in Chicago (we were staying there overnight because we had a flight to Puerto Rico the next morning).
We had been talking, catching up (one has surprisingly little time with one’s future spouse in the day or two leading up to a wedding) and there was a moment of silence. I was toying with my beer and out of nowhere I said ‘These are some of the greatest hours that a decent man could ever expect to have.’
She smiled at me and raised her wine glass and we clinked them together. It was the happiest I’ve ever been.
StChas77
Hanging my college degree on the wall of my new townhouse after my divorce, and realizing my education was the one thing no one can ever take away from me. Lost a house, dogs, friends, even family….but that degree I earned is all mine, just for me, as long as I breathe.
Gellyd0nutfiller
(1/2) My wife was roughly 8 weeks pregnant, on her way to work, and got into a car accident. Some guy tried to cut across 4 lanes of road in his monstrous Dodge pickup and didn’t see my wife’s Saturn there. She drove under his passenger door at about 45 mph and into his rear passenger tire. The impact completely missed the safety cage/crumple zone of her car and instead caught the engine square on under the hood and peeled the hood back onto the windshield. The engine/front-end was pushed backwards the 3″ or so into the back of the tirewalls. This pushed the firewall back into the cabin and pushed the dashboard down as her legs slammed up into it. She was wearing her seatbelt and the airbags did their job and aside from nasty bruises, she wasn’t visibly bleeding anywhere.
I get a call at 6:30am from my now hysterical wife telling me to come to scene, some 30 mins away from our apartment. She won’t let me hang up with her until, mercifully, the responding officer comes by to collect her statement. There are few things harder than driving into morning rush-hour traffic without road raging like a mofo while listening to your wife crying her eyes out on the phone.
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Flying out of Iraq.
[deleted]
(2/2) I get there and her car looks bad. The other driver was apologizing profusely… and then he found out she was pregnant… and he nearly breaks down in tears as well. We get everything sorted and head to her doctor’s office.
The ultrasound looks good, the heartbeat is strong, and thankfully there are no signs of bleeding or ruptures anywhere. We were super relieved and completely excited all over again about having a kid!
The kid is now an amazing little 2 year old 🙂
Bonus Good Guy: The other driver called us about dinner time that evening to make sure everything went ok, as he spent all day worried about it as well. He was ecstatic to hear all was well and we thanked him for his concern.
Double Bonus: The insurance money from her completely totalled Saturn helped us buy a house. So the accident that could have taken my wife and daughter out instead gave us a place to live.
muckrucker
The first time I lost a pound and realized that this whole exercise thing actually works. Have lost 100 lbs to date. Only 10 more to go.
[deleted]
My father is a Baptist preacher, and I am gay. Growing up, I always knew I was gay but didn’t know how to tell my family. I have memories as a young child of my entire family talking about ‘Soandso is gay. Isn’t that disgusting.’ Because of this environment, I did not come to terms with my homosexuality until I was 13. I struggled with a drug addiction from age 14 – 16 trying to numb the feelings I was having. When I was 18, my sister asked my dad while we sat around the dinner table what he would do if one of us were gay (she had no idea about my situation), and his response was ‘I’d ask you to leave the house, and not come back.’
Then I went to a private college out of state, and found a group of friends I was comfortable coming out to. I was worried about going home, because my family still didn’t know and I knew what was going to happen if I did come out.
My 2nd year of college I was in a relationship, and was so happy that I could just be me when I was at school. Going home was always a dark time, and I found myself being really depressed when I went home because I had to start ‘hiding’ again. So half way through my sophomore year I decided it was time to tell my dad, because I had been lying to them for 19 years about this and it was time for the crap to stop.
I told my dad, the preacher, and expected him to ask me to leave the house. Instead he looked me, and said, “Son.. I will always love you. I am sorry for the things I have said in the past. Help me understand.”
Coming out was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. While I was having the conversation with my dad, I felt like I had every emotion in the spectrum. Sad, scared, happy, angry (with both him and myself), etc. Hearing him say he wanted to understand, though. Knowing that not all people are incapable of changing how they believe. That was the best feeling I’ve ever had.
fishious_
When I was 6 years old I was canoeing with my Mom and Dad on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. We were making our way through a series of small rapid with the canoe hit a small boulder and capsized.
I went under water but was wearing a life jacket so I quickly popped to the surface. The only problem was that I popped up underneath the still capsized canoe. I remember coming up into complete darkness. I was panicked and for a second thought I might be dead and in some sort of dark afterlife place.
A few moments later (seemed like forever) my Dad flips the canoe back over and there I am, looking up at him with a big wet smile. He grabbed my up and gave me the biggest hug I’ve ever had.
I’m sure the panic I felt was minor compared to the panic my parents were experiencing during the small amount of time they couldn’t find me. But the feeling of relief and happiness whenever he flipped that canoe over is indescribable, for me and I’m sure for my parents also.
IMakePeopleRich
When I was 16-weeks pregnant, I fell down the stairs. It’s actually the safest time in a pregnancy to have a fall (at the beginning), but once I saw bleeding, I had a feeling of absolute terror.
My husband drove me to my midwife, and sitting in the waiting room, watching all of the happily pregnant people around me was absolutely awful.
The ultrasound tech set us up in the room, turned on the monitor, and within three seconds, turned the screen to us and said, “Here’s your baby. Here’s the heartbeat. Here’s the perfect placenta. And if you want to know the sex, I can tell you that, too.”
Seeing my son up on that screen, wiggling around in his happy little womb was the best feeling I’ve ever had. I thought, for sure, I’d lost him, or at least had a placental abruption that would have required a delivery that he surely would not have survived.
He’s 4-months-old now.
HappyGiraffe
Some of this material has been edited for clarity.