End the year with a smile!
What?
Days of Yay is an initiative to get you talking about one thing every day that has made you happy! Particularly for students, stress is sky high with finals – but it doesn’t need to be that way. Taking a moment to appreciate the ‘Yay’ will make your day better!
#DaysOfYay
Use the hashtag #daysofyay on your daily social media posts and get featured on our social media accounts and be entered to win cool prizes!
When?
Days of Yay runs for the entire month of December! You can participate at three levels: either a ‘marathon’, ‘relay’, or ‘sprint’! MIssed the start date? No worries! Keep reading for all the details!
Three Levels of Participation
You can choose to participate in Days of Yay by either doing a marathon’ and posting every day for the entire month. Or you can ‘relay’ during the month take turns posting for the entire event with you and three other friends! Or, if you’re late to the party, you can do a ‘sprint’!
Marathon
From December 1st to the 31st, post everyday about something that made you happy! Get a sense of accomplishment and be featured one of our superstars (but only if you want to)! Do a fun re-cap of your posting on the January 1st!
Relay
For those of you who are super-duper busy, form a team of four with your friends. Starting on the 4th, have one member post for a week, then pass on the ‘baton’ to the next member to post for the next week (and so on).
Posting Schedule:
Sprint
Missed the start date for Days of Yay? You can still participate! Your challenge: to post three things that made you go “Yay!” for three days straight!
Why Days of Yay?
So the first wave of midterms is over, but you’ve still got a 6-page research paper, or a lab write-up that you probably should have started last week and maybe realized only 2 hours ago that’s actually due tomorrow. Let’s not forget the presentation you have to compose and present by Wednesday that’s worth more than you’d originally thought (say almost as much as your final?) – no pressure there, am I right? Oh, then second wave of midterms hits and suddenly you find yourself smack dab in the middle of finals.
University is stressful – we get it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-year struggling to adjust to the whirlpool of assignments and exams while trying to catch the attention of the cute guy or girl sitting a few rows down and getting a full night’s sleep at the same time, or if you’re an upper-year trying to figure out just what the heck to do with your life, and how. Under all the stress and pressure, it’s easy to let the list of negativities build up, dampen your mood, and should I say, direct you towards the winter bout of depression?
Doesn’t sound very pleasant, does it?
So let’s take a moment to step back, take a breath, and reflect. What’s something good that’s happened today? Focus on the small things, and allow them to outweigh the negativities. Maybe the line at Uppercase was shorter than usual. Maybe you forgot to bring your umbrella, and a stranger shared theirs with you, or maybe (for once) it wasn’t actually raining. What’s something that made you smile, or made your internal voice give a shout of yay? Pull out your phone, or open up your laptop and share this with the rest of the world. Share your moment of happiness and who knows, maybe it’ll put a smile on someone else’s face.
This year, the UBC Cancer Association challenges you, or rather encourages you to either post a picture, tweet, or update your Insta or Facebook sharing something that made you happy for the last month of the year. Hashtag your post with #DaysOfYAY to allow the contagiousness of happiness to take effect, and encourage your friends to share their moments.