Getting Caught in the Rain: a Personal Story

Getting caught in the rain: a personal story

By Jade Braden

I recalled an instance in my life that involved a very drenched girl with a beaming face to boot. When I was in 6^th grade, I was waiting for my mom to pick me up after school. She was running late but she asked me to wait outside of the library, across from my middle school. As I was waiting, I remember seeing the clouds continue to grow darker and the wind pick up. As a couple more minutes passed, it suddenly began pouring. At first, I took the initial reaction of trying to take cover to avoid getting wet. Seeing that I was already soaked during the first two minutes, I decided to stop trying to hide under a half-covered tree, place my book bag on the ground and spread my arms wide with my head tilted up. I closed my eyes and felt the raindrops fall on my face and run off my chin. As I listened to the rain fall on the concrete and into quickly forming puddles on the ground, I felt my face slowly draw a smile. I couldn’t help but laugh as I felt an unexplainable joy well up inside which encouraged me to spin around a couple of times. This seemingly infinite time abruptly ended with the sound of a horn and a mother’s cry, asking for her daughter to get out of the rain.

Although this moment was somewhat brief, this theme of getting caught in the rain consistently comes up, while I’m going out for a run or heading out of work. What I learned was more than simply accepting a ruined hairstyle and clammy feet. I learned to experience and maintain the joy that a child felt when she recognized the pure nature of rain. The soothing sounds of rainfall combined with cool raindrops on ones’ skin are a reinvigorating experience but the weather is often widely dismissed as bad weather. I figured out that the moment one decides that they are not afraid of the effects on ones’ appearance I was more ready to jump into the moment and enjoy life as it comes at me. So, consider this an opportunity: when a storm is brewing and there is nothing to lose, give it a try. Close your eyes and look up to the sky as the rain comes down on you and feel invigorated.