Rain 🌧️

It rained today in Berkeley!

I’m telling you this because I have a special appreciation for rain. To most people, it’s just water falling from the sky. But for me, It’s such an exciting natural phenomenon. Every time it rains, there’s a cool breeze the flows throughout the house. Mornings aren’t really mornings anymore. The sun isn’t really out. Instead of feeling the constant urge to pee when you wake up, you feel the coziness of your blanket to an extent you’ve never felt before. You’re wrapped tight enough for your body to stay nice and warm, but your face is exposed to that cold 62oF air. It’s actually quite pleasant.

After a quick contemplation of those random, scattered thoughts in your brain, you finally decide to get out of bed. Suddenly, you sense a distinctive aura. The physical change in the atmosphere has created the idea of emotional and mental change in your mind. You’re filled with hope that this day is going to be different than the past days. It’s going to be exhilarating, engaging, productive; a day where your actions will portray a flow of spontaneity. You tell yourself that it’s just an illusion, and you carry on.

After situating yourself in the kitchen, you start boiling water for your morning coffee (instant coffee, of course, this is college, we don’t have time for a pour-over or a french press). You’re too tired to make breakfast, so you just warm up one of the Desi sweets your roommate’s mom left in the fridge for the household. You finally go out to your deck, and that’s when you really experience the reality of the situation.

Your deck is wet. Telegraph Avenue is wet. The Berkeley hills are wet. There’s a certain shine on the nearby trees because guess what, they’re wet. There are people playing spike ball on Memorial Glade and they’re wet too. Everythings wet. I mean there’s literally water pouring from the sky, why wouldn’t things be wet?

Well, that’s the beauty of rain. It’s not that it just makes everything wet, but a single act of water pouring from the sky simply changes everything. It changes the way one plays Spikeball because now it’s easier and softer to dive. It changes the experience of one’s daily hike through the Berkeley hills because now the water is refreshing and motivates you to push even more. It changes the direction of your stroll through Telegraph Avenue because you don’t want Pizza anymore, you want Hot Cocoa.

Rain brings change to everything. And change is lovely. When you’re stuck in a continuous routine, you need change, you want change. You need something to tell you that life is not dull or constant or boring or exhausting, it’s simply dynamic!