Author's Note: This article may seem to get off topic a LOT, especially in the middle of it. But I wanted to try to explain some things the best I could, and the only way I could do that would be to get off topic a little. Don't worry; it'll all make sense in the end. Trust me.
I love the rain.
I remember sitting in front of my window, staring out as rain poured from the sky when I was little. I remember running around my front yard, wet grass sticking to my feet, my face wet while it rained. I remember sitting in the back of my dad's pickup truck when it started pouring.
All of my life's happiest moments usually happen when it's raining.
While most people look upon dark, rainy days as sad and depressing, to me it feels like a second chance, a second impression. I feel like I'm able to show another part of me - part no one would usually see - when the sun doesn't shine and the clouds open up. I think that a rainy day isn't something to get upset over; it's something to feel happy about.
Seconds chances aren't ever a light matter. You've all heard that Paramore song "Misery Business", right? "Second chances, they don't ever matter, people never change." It's rare that someone will easily get a second chance.
Second chances are easily related to first impressions, though. Take the first day of school or picture day, for example. Everyone always looks their best: they're wearing nice outfits, their hair isn't combed back into a ponytail, and some girls even only wear makeup then. Let's say you forgot about picture day and you came to school wearing basketball shorts and a sport's team shirt. There is such a thing as retake's day, where you're easily given a second chance to look fantastic.
Usually, most people always try to look their best when they go out anyway. So when it rains, it's like a second chance to show who you are. Some people may never know that you play volleyball or do dance until you wear that old t-shirt and jeans when it rained. To most people, you'd just look like an ordinary girl, not someone who excelled at volleyball.
When I think of first impressions and second chances, I think of the four seasons: summer, fall, winter and spring. Starting in the fall, everything in nature starts to die: leaves change colors and fall off, grass becomes brown, it gets colder. When spring finally rolls around, everything comes back to life, and it feels like a second or third or fourth chance for some things.
Spring usually starts off with major temperature changes in some places; in others, not so much. However, there are temperature differences no matter where you live. Whether it's from negative numbers to positive (even if they're small positive numbers), it was still a change, right?
Rain is also another sign of spring. Water is necessary for all living things. It starts lives; it starts new beginnings and new possibilities. When flowers die in the winter and when it starts raining again in March, the flower plants bloom again. When everything come back to life after what seems like "an endless death," it feels good. It feels wonderful, amazing, even.
So when I say that the rain doesn't make me sad or depressed (although it does make me tired), I mean it in a seconds chances sense. To me, rain represents a new life, a new beginning, a new hope. It seems to make the world seem to stop, and other times it can make the world start over again. It's all in a matter of perspective.
This is Kaila, going to study for the SAT's
(I'm in the business of misery; let's take it from the top . . .)
