Rain

Rain, what does it signify to you?

To many people around my area, it is a gloomy day where you stay in and sleep. Everything is wet. Everything is nasty. Everything is 'yucky.' Nobody likes rain around here, and that's a fact. The worst part of rain in these parts? Driving in it. Animals, deer, slick roads, hard to see, and hazards galore. There isn't a very good outlook on it here, obviously.

As a non-driving citizen of America, I thankfully get the pleasure of avoiding these dangers. Then again, I hardly look at rain as 'dangerous'. Out of the many people in my area, I am one of the few that absolutely adores rain. People call be crazy for that fact, and maybe I am but my outlook on it differs their's almost in every single way possible. How might you ask? Simple.

1. It allows the world to grow.
Uhm, hello? Common Sense calling, it seems as if you've missed my past hundred calls, so I'll just leave another message. Rain is water and water is the natural thing that all living things need in order to grow, live, and mature. Yeah, some of you might not like water- I know I hate tap water, but it's something even a human needs. If any of you smartasses go off and say 'I don't care about things living and I don't drink water!'. Yeah, well, news flash honey, trees need water. Without trees, there wouldn't be any air. No air? You're suffocating, buddy. You don't drink water? Well, neither do I- I use it in cooking, it's in my foods, and those drinks that don't taste like water but are actually just corn syrup, dye, chemicals, and flavoring pumped into water.

Getting off of my sarcastic soap box, rain is important to everything in life- just as much as the sun is. Besides, who doesn't want that nice corn stalk to grow up big and tall so we can have some nice corn on the cob?...Wow, I really can't wait until summer when corn's in season, can I?

2. The colors
I don't know about everyone else, but I love how rain makes everything look. The dreary look of rain in a city, it looks like something right out of a movie. The look of rain in the rural areas is flat out gorgeous. Everything is this vibrant shade of green and everything simply seems so alive. Who cares about getting a little wet? Our skin is water-proof and being out in the rain is natural.

So few people dare to see the beauty where it isn't normally seen. I know for fact that if my mother looked outside, she would groan and refuse to do anything outside. She'll refuse to let me outside too, even though I'm seventeen, doesn't matter if I bundle up with a rain coat and boots either! Hmp. There is nothing stopping you from having a good day if it's raining! It just might be a bit wetter and muddier.

3. The smell

Have you ever truly stopped to smell what rain smells like? Not many people can actually smell it, and I doubt it's as noticeable in the city as it is in the country, but rain smells sweet and clean. I love the smell of rain and it's moisture. It's just lovely to me and many could disagree with me, but that's how I feel about it at least.

4. The Sleep
I don't know about you, but when it's raining lightly outside and I'm listening to the pitter-patter of rain against my window, I sleep better. It's something about the moisture in the air, the drop in temperature, the sounds, it all just comforts me. That's another reason why a rainy day is a lazy day around here, you tend to get the most sleep when it's raining...don't lie. I'm not meaning thunderstorms here, people.

5. The Life
Look around outside after it rains, I'm serious. If you live near any natural place, just take a look around. Is it muddy? Sure. However, everything seems to be revived. The animals are coming out again as the sun comes back to play. The birds are flying, the grass has seemingly grown twice as fast (sad for the gardener, but hey, it just gives him more work. More work=more pay.), it's all pretty and everything.


So...what's my point?

Don't be so damn negative.

Don't look at the world's natural functions of rejuvenation and growth like it's a plague. Find beauty in things, even if they hinder human activities. So many people spend their time sitting and brooding about things that are perfectly beautiful in the world, but I'll tell you something- that rain? It's perfectly natural. We're not. With our fancy cars, our silly electronics, our clothes, we're unnatural as hell. So take in the beauty of what is natural, don't hate it. 

...And don't call the person out there dancing in it insane. They're just happy, possibly happier than you. 

This article can apply for so much more than rain, but I have purposefully left this out. This article can be taken in one of two ways, my dear friends- the 'rainy days' we all have, or literal rain. It's up for you to decide. Just remember, don't be so damn negative on that rainy day that life tosses you. Life goes on and rain could make life better. 

Life and Dreams

As we all grow older, we begin to realize that our dreams of what our lives would be almost never come true and we almost never end up in the place that we thought that we would.

I might not be to that point yet, but I know that things have been coming and coming fast. I find myself lost up in the world around me, class assignment after assignment, attempting to juggle my hobbies and my friends, having a boyfriend and family to attend to. It's a lot of work already. The thing of it is though? I'm young and it's my duty to learn how to manage it. The question of it all is, what am I going to do as I get older?

Had you asked me this question when I was younger, you would have found that my passion for animals overruled everything. I wanted to be a vet, I wanted to be a zoo keeper, anything that kept me close in touch with animals...Until I realized being a vet wouldn't work because I couldn't stand the sight of animals in pain, and a zoo keeper wouldn't work because I am too jumpy. Had you asked me this question merely last year, I would have very bluntly told you that I was going to become a best-selling author and I wouldn't stop until I made it happen. Now? I'm not too sure what I want to do anymore.

My birthday has just come around the corner, bringing in another year of school and classes. I have to start looking for colleges this summer, start gathering scholarships and looking into various types of grants that might help me pay may way through a higher education. The very worst part of it is, is trying to figure out what I'm even going in for. In my future, I see so many things laid out before me that I could do and possibly do well. My love of English and writing is still strong in my life, (having taken six English classes in three years of High school proves that) yet, I'm not sure that's all I want to do with my life. It's no secret that writers normally don't make it big. Most writers have to have outside jobs as well as their writing career, so looking into other fields to fall back on will secure my future, right?

The issue is, what should I go into? I have a love of the human mind and mentally helping others, that's no secret for anyone around me. I am the shoulder to cry on and I am the listening ear, I am the advise giver. Could psychology be seen in my future...? After all, I am taking a class on it next year and I already passed sociology. Then, what of my dream of owning my own store? Shall that go down the tube? A business career could be in my future as well. I don't even want to get into my possibly futures in the religious path I follow.

So what do I choose?

Today, while I was doing dishes, I realized something. Why do I even have to choose? If these things are all who I am, all of these things are things I want to do, why should I have to pick between them? Any of them? The idea that I have to confine myself to this little group of one or two choices is ridiculous because in life, I can be whatever I want to be. I'm not going to limit what I want to be based on the realism of the choices, what would give me the most money or the most security in my life. I'm going to plow full steam ahead and do what I want to in my life.

This might not be the 'smartest' or most 'responsible' choice, but why not? It's my choice and trying to limit things down, it just makes me unhappy. Isn't the general goal of life to be happy? So that's what I am going to do. Pave my own way, my own name, and my own life to what is hopefully happiness. I don't need a definite label to define me. I don't need to be be 'Sam the Author' or 'Sam the Teacher' or 'Sam the Business owner', what's wrong with 'Sam the person who does whatever the fuck they wanna do?'

What I'm trying to say, is don't feel like you have to choose between the things you love in life and don't force yourself into something that makes you unhappy. All my life, I have refused paths in this life that I know would make me unhappy. No one can make you do them. As for the smartasses out there? Yes. You do have to go to school. lol That's an amazing  privilege, trust me. Doesn't matter if that makes you unhappy, because it will make you very happy when it's over.

In my future, I plan to be something amazing. I might fail, but that won't stop me from trying. Like I always tell myself- I'm not the best writer, but that's not going to stop me from becoming an amazing one.