View in browser 

 May 27, 2023

Psst ... Scottie Andrew here, subbing in for our AJ. Thanks for reading!

It's always the right time to do something for the first time. Earlier this week, a friend slurped her first oyster and wasn't disappointed. Another friend shaved their head, the first major change they've ever made to their hair and a signifier of the fresh new start they sought. My mom recently started taking tap classes for the first time in her life and can now shuffle off to Buffalo with the best of them. I'm so impressed by these firsts, major and minute, and my loved ones' willingness to try the things that scare and excite them and ultimately bring them joy. Here's to them, and here's to following their lead.

If there's something you'd like to see here, drop us a line. Know someone who could use a little Good Stuff? Send them a copy! We hope you love it as much as we do.

Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

The ultimate road trip ends
Joy Ryan, 93, and her grandson Brad set out more than seven years ago on a nature lover’s dream mission: Visit every single US national park. One pandemic and a major aging milestone later, they’ve completed their tour of all 63, ending at the National Park of American Samoa. She’s the oldest person to have visited every national park, her grandson said. It all started when Joy, then in her 80s, told Brad she regretted taking so few trips in her life. He surprised her with a trip to Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, where they caught the travel bug. From there, they embarked on a journey across the US (and south of the equator, where the American Samoa park is). Their checklist took longer than they expected to complete: They couldn’t have foreseen the Covid-19 pandemic throwing a wrench into their trip timeline, but as soon as it was safe for the duo to resume travel, they headed back out, eager for adventure. “It was the greatest privilege of my life to be in the driver’s seat for Grandma Joy’s Road Trip,” Brad Ryan wrote on an Instagram, sharing a photo of himself and his grandma Joy at the National Park of American Samoa, beaming.

Dancing to feel closer to home
The members of the Pacific Islander dance group Lei Pasifika are proud of the meticulous attention they pay to nailing their dance moves. But they’re prouder still of the sisterhood they’ve built. And though they’ve booked shows for the next few months, they dance not for the public performances but for the deepening connection to their Pacific heritage. Dance is a form of storytelling and identity-building, both for those who’ve emigrated to the US mainland or those who’ve lived here all their lives but seek to connect to their culture, writes CNN’s Rachel Ramirez, who takes weekly Tahitian dance classes with Lei Pasifika. All across the US, there are similar dance groups dedicated to teaching the dances and songs of Tongans, Samoans, Chamoru and Native Hawaiians, whose members often live in areas where the Pacific Islander population is sparse. “They come even though they’ve never danced before, but because their parents or family danced before them and they have that connection,” Lei Pasifika leader Tamara Bejar Hernandez told Ramirez. “It makes them less homesick.”

A once-in-a-lifetime hole-in-one
Michael Block is a golf pro, not a pro golfer. So when the California golf instructor earned a spot at the PGA Championship earlier this month, many in attendance assumed he wouldn’t make the cut to play the weekend, if they noticed him at all. But by the final round, Block made sure everyone knew his name. The coach earned his place to play alongside four-time major champion Rory McIlory and even drilled a hole-in-one at the 15th hole. Block ended the weekend in 15th place, earning over $288,000 (the equivalent of what he'd make off of 1,922 golf lessons) – and an automatic invite to next year’s event. He was also invited to compete at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas, though he had to cancel a few golf lessons back home to make it. “I think they understand why I can’t teach them tomorrow,” he said.

Raise a glass to...

D’Arcy Drollinger, San Francisco’s first-ever Drag Laureate. In her new role, Ms. Drollinger, a club owner and celebrated performer, will serve as an ambassador for the Bay Area’s vibrant drag scene and LGBTQ community. The 18-month term, the first of its kind in the US, comes with a $55,000 stipend, local glory and the goal of reinforcing the significance of the art form and sharing it far and wide. San Fran has become a storied destination for queer and trans people seeking a supportive community, its thriving drag scene a treasured community hub. But the laureate position was created at a challenging time for LGBTQ people and drag performers, as countless lawmakers introduce legislation that aims to limit and restrict the rights of LGBTQ people and community access to drag performances. Drollinger said she’s “proud to live in a city that is pioneering this position while other parts of the US and the world might not be supportive of drag. “So many people that find drag, they find it when they aren’t allowed to sparkle in their real life, and their fabulousness is squashed,” Drollinger told CNN. “Drag is a way to let so much of that out.” 

A bright idea

The Swifties among us know it was next-to-impossible to score tickets to Taylor’s latest blockbuster tour. Take Davis Perrigo, a Nashville accountant and Taylor Swift devotee, who couldn’t find tickets to Swift’s stop at Nissan Stadium. So the enterprising fan, determined to see his star, got a job at the stadium as a security guard and attended the concert (albeit with his back turned from the stage) for hourly wages. Videos from attendees in the front row captured Perrigo mouthing every word to “I Knew You Were Trouble” while surveying the thousands of fervent fans before him. His passion was perhaps a bit unbecoming for a security guard, known for their stoic, impenetrable dispositions – Perrigo said Swift’s own security asked him to “take it down a notch.” But if he had bought tickets, he likely wouldn’t have gotten so close to his idol or become a viral sensation: “It really was a blessing that I didn’t get tickets!" 

You gotta see this

BABY ALERT! Two litters of critically endangered red wolf pups were just born at the North Carolina Zoo, and they're already doing their part to raise awareness about their species' plight. Wouldn't you want to do everything you could to protect those teeny little angels? The bevy of babies was somewhat unexpected: Two wolf couples had nine pups between them, the zoo said. The babes will be raised by their parents, likely away from zoo visitors so that they'll have a better chance at survival if they're chosen to return to the wild. The zoo is one of several around the country with a red wolf breeding program designed to eventually improve their wild populations, which declined significantly due to habitat loss and "predator control" programs. These yipping babies have a lot of responsibility, but they'll spend their infancy snoozing with their siblings.

Wanna get away?

Museums often get a bad rap as dusty snoozefests or temples for artifacts stolen by colonizers. But these museums dedicated to emerging technologies are anything but stuffy. From the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, with its concrete building sliced through with bulging glass bubbles in a nod to the famous surrealist, to Singapore's ArtScience Museum, where visitors are transported across the world via VR to a California redwood forest, there's a growing group of collections around the world that are more dedicated to looking forward than turning back.

Hear, hear!

Dancing and singing is all good, but the ultimate gift is to change people's minds. What else is there?

- Tina Turner, in conversation with Oprah Winfrey in 2005. Turner, a powerhouse of rock music with a survivor's grit, died this week at 83.

Rec of the week

Brought to you by CNN Underscored

Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

I've shared this baby albatross live feed before, but something truly remarkable happened on the stream the other day: The albatross chick, nestled on a perch overlooking the southern coast of New Zealand, stretched its wings while a rainbow beamed overhead. One day this albatross will take to the skies, but for now, it's content to peer up at its wonder. (Click here to watch.)

Made with love by CNN's 5 Things team. 

Sponsor Content by BetterHelp

Prioritize your mental health from the comfort of home

Discover the convenience and effectiveness of online counseling without leaving the couch. With BetterHelp, you can connect with therapists ready to help with whatever you’re facing. You can get up to 25% off today!