AUSTIN, Texas — Every week, I head out to different parts of Central Texas and ask people to share good news and positivity. This week I was downtown, just outside of the Seaholm district, and asked people to share some good news.
"You know, COVID is looked at negatively," said Ryan Nail. "But the one thing good that has come out of it, everyone is a lot more friendly to each other."
"I've noticed that too," John Pouland added. "We've always prided ourselves on being friendly here in Texas, and sometimes in other states, especially on the coast, it doesn't seem that way. But they certainly seem to be a lot friendlier and upbeat."
"My birthday is Monday and I'm starting to celebrate right now," said Brittany Ziemann. "I had pizza today, pizza's always good."
"My brother and I haven't been close forever but we've started to chat more and, like, catch up," said Daniel Monahan.
I also asked people what they're looking forward to or what's made them happy.
"I think now there's a lot of opportunities," said Nail. "More than ever, and if you can find it, that's the stuff that changes industries."
"Do you follow the good news movement on Instagram?" asked Ziemann. "It's my favorite thing actually. There's a feed, it's called the Good News Movement, and they always post these good, heartwarming stories and I look at them every day, because there is good stuff going on out there."
"Actually, working at Merit over here has been great," said Monahan, who works at Merit Coffee Co. "I meet a lot of cool people, hear stories kind of like this on the register a lot. It's been cool to do kind of what you're doing a little bit but on the other side of things over there too."
Then, of course, I asked the same question I always end with. Do you still think there's good news out there?
"Absolutely," said Nail. "There's good in everyone, you just got to find it."
"There's always something to smile about," said Ziemann.
"Oh yeah! As long as there are people, there's going to be good news," said Pouland. "There are a lot of optimists out there, they're contagious to the rest of us."
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