Was talking the other day with someone and the topic of happy places came up. Like, places you have a good memory of that you can go back to if you feel down. I couldn’t imagine a happy place at that moment but I just figured out my happy place.

It’s a public natural swimming pool made in a river in a tiny village in the Provence, France. I went there for my first holiday with my girlfriend when we were not even two months together. We met and we just felt like going on a three week trip together through France. Never went to France before and never went camping before. So we went camping in this small village in the Provence and I had the time of my life really. That specific pool deserves to be my happy place.

How about you guys?

  • Catradora-Stalinism☭
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    131 year ago

    Uh, literally just like, here, hexbear, anywhere I can get away. The constant liberalism hurts, as well as the hetero-cisnormativity.

    • Ratette (she/her)
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      1 year ago

      Hetero-cisnormativity when it just suffocates you gets really exhausting.

      Are you at the stage of queer where you just sigh and roll your eyes if anything remotely “straight” happens around you?

  • Arsen6331 ☭
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    1 year ago

    I wish I did. There isn’t a place that makes me particularly happy, because there is no place I’ve been to that’s suited to me and my autism. The closest thing would be my room. I have it precisely the way I need it: all curtains closed, windows shut, lights completely off, with my servers working away and their cooling fans humming nicely in the background.

    When I get overwhelmed, I end up having an autistic shutdown, and have to retreat to my room. It is the only place where I can feel calm, because anywhere else, there are people, TVs, lights on, light and sound coming from outside, etc. I can’t handle very much of that for long, especially when I am extremely overwhelmed and in a shutdown. When this happens, I just lay on my bed for hours. Not sleeping, just thinking, until I’ve expressed enough of my emotions to get rid of the stress, and then I can start recovering, which can take anywhere from hours to days.

    Even in my room though, some light and sound gets in. The perfect room would be completely sound-isolated, pitch black, and with a lock preventing anyone from entering. I’d spend a lot of time there. I also love forests and places with lots of nature, but it’s ruined by other people walking around, cars driving, and mosquitoes (I absolutely despise mosquitoes).

      • Arsen6331 ☭
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        1 year ago

        Well, I’d have my computer, but I’d want that to be the only thing emitting light, and when I turn it off, I’d want it to be pitch black. Thinking would be the entire point, and I’d have my computer near me for when I’m finished thinking.

  • Night time is my happy time, so much freedom gets taken away from me by eyes fed by sunlight, the silence and the peace, I don’t have to think about wearing anything incase I need to go out,I don’t have to worry about someone visiting, I have the freedom of doing what I tell myself at night, I can wear dresses or skirts or anything I want and I won’t want have to worry about eyes.

  • Bury The Right
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    71 year ago

    I used to live on a house by the beach until I was around 5 years old, so being on any beach that isn’t super crowded brings fond memories. Aside from that, home when it’s 7:00am and I’m not having to go into work.

    • DankZedong OP
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      1 year ago

      My girlfriend dreams of a beachhouse in the village she grew up in. I hope one day I can call a beach house my happy place too <3

  • DankZedong OP
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    1 year ago

    Another moment I’d like to nominate is this one, the Dutch cup final between PSV and Ajax (our arch rival). I went with my dad and it was such a great day and bonding moment, finding out we had the exact same place as my brother and his group of friends. It was truly beautiful. And we won, of course.

      • DankZedong OP
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        1 year ago

        I will personally block the entrance to their homes when we get a transfer fee. I want them to stay forever. Realistically, if we get an offer of 70 million for Gakpo, like the rumours want us to believe, he will be gone sadly. I hope he ends up better than Bergwijn, Memphis, Strootman or whatever golden talent we have delivered in the past decade. Only Wijnaldum became decently succesful for the ‘once in a lifetime’ talents we had in the last ten years. Gakpo seems like another one of those so I hope he can keep his form in the future. It would be hard to replace him, but we have several youth academy prospect who are looking great with Madueke, Bakayoko, Ibadi, van Duiven and Jevon Simons (not related to Xavi).

        Now, Simons is just something else though.

        • @whoami@lemmygrad.ml
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          21 year ago

          I think football (and sports generally) are my happy place…

          I’m a celtic supporter, and it’s sad how maybe 20, but definitely 30+ years ago clubs like celtic, psv, ajax, benfica, etc are were recognized as big, relevant clubs; now clubs with money but no history like PSG and Man City can dominate football and people are supposed to act like it’s some accomplishment to be owned by billionaire royal families…

          • DankZedong OP
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            1 year ago

            It really is sad. When we played R+ngers this year it felt like a trip to the past. Two great clubs going against eachother while clubs with no history like City can go into CL with ease. But then I remember that the R+ngers fans brought 3k fans with them, and we regularly bring like 5k fans to European away games while big clubs can’t even fill away sections international.

            We are the big clubs in number of fans. When PSV plays at home, the city gets another 2-300k visitors for the stadium and the bars. When we become champion, there are 1 million people that come to Eindhoven. We are a big club, the results are just shit.

            As a bonus, here is a message from PSV to Celtic.

          • DankZedong OP
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            11 year ago

            I’ve changed my plan to block the entrance to Marcel Brands’ home. Reports say we are getting 37 million + 13 million in future fees for a player involved in 110+ goals in like 100 matches, while Antony goes for more than double.

            I at least hope his replacement will be decent. We apparently are going to sign a Norwegian guy from Molde.

            • @whoami@lemmygrad.ml
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              11 year ago

              It definitely seems like a rip off considering the fee. I think Antony and ohter Ajax players go for so much money because of their recent form in the champions league.

              Molde usually produce good players, so you’ll probably be fine. As long as you keep SImons and reinvest the Gakpo cash wisely…

  • @ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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    61 year ago

    A small, isolated jungle beach on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. When I was little, around 10, my family never had much money, but that summer we were incredibly lucky and were invited by family friends, who were on a military deployment in the country, to spend a few weeks with them. It was nothing fancy, but I consider those weeks an incredible and pivotal part of my life and development, and there is one part that I will always remember.

    Starting early in the morning before the sun had even come up, we took a bus from the small seaside town we were staying in. After about an hour we got off at a coffee plantation in a lesser developed part of the country, and then with a guide my family began to hike a small relatively untraveled, winding trail through the rainforest. While it took about 2 hours and my 10 year old legs were on fire, I loved every second of it. Seeing the insane variety of wildlife, such as toucans, parrots, various monkeys, and a young curious ocelot, along with the intricate plant life and massive trees was breathtaking. But at the end of our hike, we ended up at a very small beach on the coast. It was in a small cove and the beach itself couldn’t have been more then 100 meters long, but I felt like I had stepped into another world.

    As I stepped past the thick border of palms onto the beach, the sounds of the rainforest quickly faded and were replaced by a tranquil silence, broken only by the gentle lapping of small waves. The water in the cove was a vibrant turquoise and the sand a deep white color. There were schools of small colorful fish darting around and a few lemon sharks lazily swimming around. And among all of it, I just remember feeling truly at peace. A feeling I have rarely been able to recapture. My family spent the entire day at that beach, well over 12 hours, and I barely felt the time pass, I feel like I could have stayed there forever if given the chance.

    It is definitely one of my life’s goals to revisit that beach, and that probably won’t happen for a very long time, but it truly was a special place.

    On a bit of a funnier note, a few of the remora that were with the sharks decided that I was interesting and also in need of a cleaning, so they would constantly try to swim right under me and latch onto various parts of my body. They didn’t do that to anyone else in my family, and even if I got out for a while, the second I went back in the water they would seemingly teleport to me. The more I think about it, it was probably because my swim suit was really shiny a resembled the shark’s scales, but it was still a fun experience.

    • Bury The Right
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      21 year ago

      When I was around 10 I also went on a trip to a tropical beach but to the Dominican Republic instead. I was mostly held up in the resort and didn’t go on any jungle walks like you did but it was still exotic and great and I did get to swim with nurse sharks in an enclosed area which we got to by boat. Another thing that made that time special for me was that it was before my mom and dad breaking up and then my dad passing away a little after that.

  • lemmygrabber
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    31 year ago

    I moved recently and an having difficulty settling in so no such happy space for me. But I still derive a lot of enjoyment from drinking beer and listening to music on Saturday nights so I do that occasionally.

  • @zigzagadhesive
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    21 year ago
    • looking out my window in the morning while drinking coffee; I’m fortunate to have an amazing view
    • meditating in my attic
  • KiG V2
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    11 year ago

    Most often currently, either the pond / woods by the apartments, or my car, or just my apartment tbh