Something To Celebrate: World Population Day

Background photo by Deva Williamson (@big_laugh_kitchen)

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Every year on July 11th, the world pauses to mark World Population Day — a holiday established in 1989 by the United Nations, inspired by the day global population first hit five billion. We have since, rather enthusiastically, added another three billion people to that count. Overachievers, all of us.

It sounds like a very large, very abstract thing to celebrate. Eight billion people. But here is what that actually looks like on a Tuesday: it is the neighbor who waves from their driveway. The person who held the elevator door. The stranger who made your coffee exactly right without being asked. Eight billion people, and somehow a handful of them ended up in your little corner of the world, making your ordinary days a little warmer without even trying. That is honestly remarkable when you sit with it.

There is always something to celebrate, even when the something is simply this — that you exist at a very specific moment in history, on a planet teeming with stories, alongside billions of other people who are also just trying to figure it out. You did not have to do anything extraordinary to earn your place in that count. You were already included.

So today, maybe take one quiet moment to appreciate the beautiful absurdity of it all. Make your favorite drink. Nod at a stranger. Enjoy a little corner of this very crowded, surprisingly lovely world. You belong here — and that is worth celebrating.

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