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Stories that inspire


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Here's your midweek pick-me-up: A look back at the 10 most-read stories from The Optimist in 2016. Happy new year, and onto 2017!

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This story about a bear somehow getting stuck inside a Subaru is what we need right now <https://s.washingtonpost.com/191d/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/7/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

Try not to laugh at these videos. We dare you.

By Elahe Izadi • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/191d/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/8/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

How one family is sending 13 kids to college, living debt free — and still plans to retire early <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1956/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/9/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

Lessons from an uber-frugal family.

By Erica Johnston • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1956/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/10/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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Leave it to a Canadian ad campaign to deliver the most inspiring message of this U.S. election <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1b4d/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/12/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

Canada wants America to know it's still great.

By Colby Itkowitz • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1b4d/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/13/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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52-year-old ballerina blows her teenage hologram self away in new ad <https://s.washingtonpost.com/18b4/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/18/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

Alessandra Ferri's message is not so much power as ease. Ease in her own skin. Wrinkles included.

By Sarah L. Kaufman • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/18b4/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/19/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11 <https://s.washingtonpost.com/198e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/21/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

FROM THIS ARCHIVES | A pilot reflects on one of the lesser-told tales of Sept. 11: how the first counterpunch the U.S. military prepared to throw at the attackers was effectively a suicide mission.

By Steve Hendrix • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/198e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/22/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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The janitor felt invisible to Georgetown students — until one changed his life <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1ac0/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/24/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

Febin Bellamy helped janitor Oneil Batchelor raise $2,500 to start a catering business.

By Petula Dvorak | Columnist • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1ac0/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/25/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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‘You are not going to die out here’: A woman’s terrifying night in the Chesapeake <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1905/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/27/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

She laughed when she fell off a boat. But she soon saw the situation was deadly serious.

By John Woodrow Cox • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/1905/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/28/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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He’s going home for Christmas. But most people at his prestigious college have no idea what he’s facing there. <https://s.washingtonpost.com/204e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/33/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

"As an African-American college student from a poor family, I frequently have to help my family navigate tasks that students from upper-income backgrounds don’t need to explain to their families. But I’m not the only one."

By Valerie Strauss • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/204e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/34/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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In 1998, he helped save her after a devastating fire. In 2016, he watched her graduate college. <https://s.washingtonpost.com/18a9/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/36/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

"It was kind of cool, you know, that somebody would even remember you from that long ago. I mean, I always remembered her."

By Sarah Larimer • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/18a9/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/37/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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‘I wasn’t crazy’: A homeless woman’s long war to prove the feds owe her $100,000 <https://s.washingtonpost.com/196e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/39/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>

At 80, Wanda Witter was dismissed as mentally ill as she fought with Social Security over the money she insisted she was due. She was right.

By Petula Dvorak | Columnist • Read more » <https://s.washingtonpost.com/196e/586d366d71885010a3d47683/cmhiQHJzcGRjLmNvbQ%3D%3D/40/52/422516d6533dd8dfd54eb38f2f8d39eb>
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