A cheerful person is just that, full of cheer! Another word for being in good spirits and floating above life’s worries is buoyant. While buoyant describes the physical properties that allow an object to stay afloat, it also means “not easily depressed” or “cheerful.” Buoyant also can describe a resilient economy or the stock market when it is on a high trajectory. In general, something buoyant tends to rise, or has a lightness of spirit that keeps it bouncing along, you know, like a buoy.

Welcome to 2021, synonym seekers! To welcome someone is to greet their arrival with pleasure. To go a step further, we’d also like to embrace the new year (and our loved ones, but at a safe distance!). To embrace is not only to hug, but also to receive someone or something gladly or eagerly. It can also mean to accept or avail oneself of something, as in: “The new year is a time we can embrace new practices, like yoga or eating more green vegetables.” At a time when the future seems so uncertain, in 2021, let's resolve to embrace the present, or, as they say in Latin, carpe diem!

Someone or something that is bubbly is lively, enthusiastic, or, in the case of carbonated beverages, literally full of bubbles. There are many synonyms for bubbly, but while you would never call someone carbonated, you might refer to a particularly vivacious or irrepressible friend as effervescent. This ebullient adjective means having or giving off bubbles of gas, as well as showing enthusiasm, excitement, or liveliness. An effervescent person is someone for whom suppression is unlikely or impossible, but why would we want to stem their enthusiasm? Now that 2020 is almost over, be effervescent with joy!