Vanessa’s Team Pick:
Wanna have the best day ever? Duh, of course you do! What about having the best day ever… every day? Well Grace Kim, who you might recognize from this amazing personal essay or from Straddler On The Street, is committed to having the best day ever every day for a whole year, and she’s doing it in public. That’s right! Check out her beautiful website, Best Day Project, and get excited about her brand new webseries where you can watch it all happen in real time! The webseries launched today, and in it Grace is documenting her year of having the best day every day by taking on things she’s always wanted to do but never has before. In her words, “I’ve written out all the things I’ve ever wanted to do. Every week, I’ll pick one out of my jar at random, force myself to do it, and have the best day of my life while simultaneously making an ass out of myself for your viewing pleasure.”
So what is task #1 in this glorious new webseries you can consume with your eyes every week? Hit on a girl! But Grace isn’t the kind of human to do things half-heartedly…so instead of hitting on one girl, she decided to propose to 100 girls. With a ring pop. It’s kind of incredible. Here, let’s enjoy the video together (watch out for some familiar Auto-faces!).
Are you sold on this project? I know I am. You can view a new video every week, and you can check in on Grace’s journey as a whole at the Best Day Project website. There’s even a component where Grace wants to help you! Ten percent of her ad revenue and all the donations she receives go directly into a Best Day Fund which is used to give away the things people have always wanted to do through Grace’s Best Day Project Sweepstakes. “The more we grow, the more often we can give Best Days away,” Grace told me. “I want to make as many dreams come true as possible.”
To be completely honest, this project has all just been one giant elaborate plan to keep emailing Vanessa because she’s awesome and the Jewish grandmother I never had.
Pshhh, best days.
yayyy this is awesome!! go grace! <3
This is one of the coolest ideas i have ever heard of let alone seen somebody really follow through with. It’s a complete 180 on the life that most people expect to lead. You work 5 days a week, have Saturday to relax, Sunday to stress about the upcoming week OR you do it Grace’s way and take life by the balls and make it worth living. WEll done Grace, truly inspiring.
* or you could take life by the ovaries and make it worth living… your choice.
But seriously, 100% agree with you on this. Way to be proactive Grace.
ahahaha yeah i totally agreed with you but then, balls
I’ve been so excited for this since that beautiful essay a few months ago.
Whoa, thanks! Stay tuned, I promise my future videos will have way less of me talking and being dramatic and more of me doing crazy shit and making an ass out of myself.
Next up: Preparing for the zombie apocalypse, recreating the paintball scene from 10 Things I Hate About You, me legitimately freaking out being covered by snakes which was actually one of my biggest fears and getting a really stupid hipster tattoo.
I’ve been excited since that wonderful essay, too! And this project makes me so, so happy. I’ve never met you but I’m so happy for you. You are insanely awesome, and you are the best you there is! Lots of love to you.
(also, umm, RING POP PROPOSALS I can’t even).
Yay, I like this! I think I’m gonna follow her but maybe just hit on a few girls, 100 might be a stretch!
you have cute hair.
also, you are an amazing human being. can’t wait to see more!
Fantastic idea, really excited to watch this unfolding. But if you do one every day, weren’t you tempted when writing them to make them easy, do-on-the-way-to-the-post-office kinda ideas?
When I began crafting this project, I threw a lot of do-on-the-way-to-the-post-office kinda ideas into my jar, if I haven’t done them before. Although I won’t show things like me finding a new route home or picking flowers for someone just because in my web series, it doesn’t make those days any less great.
The whole point of Best Day Project is to show that it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s the mindset you go into it with that does. You don’t need to do something crazy to have the best day of your life, you can have it just by really appreciating the things in your life for what they are.
In retrospect, my life wasn’t that bad growing up. I’ve always been a blessed individual, but I focused so much on the negative aspects of my life that I never appreciated the good. I try to have the best day of my life every day by injecting more meaning into every little thing I do and that’s the message I’m trying to spread, not that you should do all this crazy shit to make your life better.
But the crazy shit has been really, really fun.
That’s an amazing and inspiring approach to life you’ve got there. Here’s hoping you can be a great example to others out in webland!
Girl, you made me tear up with this response. I am really glad that you doing you has been so damn rewarding with this project. Thanks for sharing it.
You’re a brave mofo, Grace.
Grace Kim is so awesome.
Damn, that’s intense. I think this is an awesome project, but a year is a really, really long time to do something like that. I seriously hope nothing crazy or unpredictably sad happens. That shit does happen without warning sometimes.
:/
Still, so cool, excited to see how this unfolds, hopefully very happily.
I hope it doesn’t either. The thing is, I’ve been forcing myself to do something I’ve been scared of doing every day for over a year. And by doing that, my life has pretty much completely turned upside down and I’ve built the life I’ve always wanted.
I just threw in the jar idea to spice it up a bit and spread what I’ve been doing on my own to others in a more fun way. Once my jar tasks are done, I’m going to put all my focus on helping others do the things they’ve always wanted to do and spreading this message that honestly changed my life to the people who need to hear it most.
Sometimes it’s hard to keep putting so much time and effort into something for no other reason than I feel compelled to, but I always remind myself that my ultimate goal is to just help the people who are in the place I used to be come out of that dark hole and that keeps me going.
grace you are so inspiring. i mean that so sincerely.
xo,
the jewish grandma you never had
That’s super noble. Good on ya, lady. Positivity helps.
Grace, congratulations and thank you for launching the Best Day Project. I cried when I read your essay on the website. In line with ‘Live Through This’ partner, I wanted to mention that comic Maria Bamford (she’s amazing! guest starred on Arrested Development and Louis for t.v. fans out there). Maria’s latest album, Ask Me About My New God! also speaks out about her experience with suicidal thoughts and de-stigmatizing that common experience. You can get her album at chill.com. All the best to you, and thanks again!
It is indeed a common experience and I’m glad there are others trying to de-stigmatize it as such by talking about their experiences openly.
Even in a place as liberal as San Francisco where I grew up, 1 out of 3 gay, lesbian, bisexual high school students reported to have attempted suicide. For transgender students, that number jumps to nearly 1 in 2. This is the statistic that ultimately pushed me to do something to try and prompt change.
Oh! And I posted a link to Best Day Project on Maria’s facebook fan page. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07G42sYYZxU Here she is. :)
Possible trigger warning on this video for self-harm and trans/homophobia. Sorry.
You are the best!! I love this idea and I look forward to watching your videos. Do I see a shrine to Ellen in the background??
Ellen? Oh, you mean lesbian jesus. Why yes, yes it is.
This is an awesome idea Grace Kim! You’ve definitely inspired me to create a jar of things to encourage happiness and venturing out of my comfort zone! I’ll definitely be subscribing!
Can’t wait to see how everything evolves.