For those who have followed Girls’ Generation since their beginnings, or for others who joined later but have had the opportunity to search through more nostalgic times, it’s easy to see that Yuri has always had an outlook on life that many can only dream of following.

She takes each day as it comes, and always approaches her goals with a passion that’s genuine but still soft around the edges. She tries her best to keep her shoulders light, focusing on the glow of what’s ahead instead of dwelling in the shadowy past. She gets back up again every time she falls, and laughs after she cries: a contradictory balance of laid back yet dogged perseverance.

This isn’t to say that Yuri has breezed through everything that’s been thrown at her. At the core, most obstacles are those that every one of us faces: the weeks when bad days are more frequent than the good, the threat of judgement from others, and the ever-present fear of failure, large or small.

But from the day she placed in a dance competition, on through the years of relentless training, and past the year 2007 and that particular day in August — the one definite constant in Yuri’s life became the pressure of not just her own expectations, but those of dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of people she’ll most likely never meet. Daunting, to say the least.

And yet, Yuri’s secret cure-all isn’t hiding behind happiness, as some might be inclined to conclude. Instead, she’s realized that part of life is accepting the good along with the not-so-good, of taking in mistakes and smiling about what will go better the next time.

It’s definitely not the simplest way of living, but it’s how to move forward without thinking too much about what will drag at your feet and hold you back from all the things you could possibly become. It’s how she’s grown from Girls’ Generation’s goofy dancer into a model, an actress, a talk show regular, a solo artist, and even the star of a YouTube cooking channel.

Yuri is a perfect example of embracing all the world has to offer, of staying in life’s rickety roller coaster for all of its hills and valleys. It’s a fine line between completely ignoring the undesirable — leaving it to eat at you quietly from the inside, instead — and accepting faults so wholeheartedly they become a part of yourself, and not of a stepping stone to some place higher. But Yuri walks that line with grace and confidence, showing us all that balance is much more important than any extreme.

Happy birthday, Yuri, and here’s to many even happier ones to come. Thank you for being you, and in doing so helping us realize that accepting ourselves — through both the good and the bad — is never the worst thing to do.

Sources: MK Sports, “No Breathing”, BARREL, “Secret”, Yuri’s Instagram
Written by: moonrise31@soshified

Originally posted on December 5th, 2018.