Ever since I was a child, I always enjoyed the rain. I would always wait for them to arrive early so that I could gather with my neighbourhood friends and splash rainwater on each other no matter how dirty it was. After getting wet, I would go home only to be greeted by my concerned mother who would ask me to walk carefully to the bathroom, not because I could slip but because I would dirty the floor with my dirty, wet feet. Not going to lie, but bathing in clean water after bathing in rain was never a good feeling. It would feel itchy around the back and other body parts. But at the same time, it always felt it was worth it.
Another reason why I enjoyed the rain was because schools would get cancelled. Many of us must have experienced at least once where we went to school, it started heavily raining and then, parents would find it difficult to drive around in high level of water. But cancelled school days were always a good opportunity to take a day off and relax. But if there was a power outage, then that means TV wouldn't work and so, there would be no fun then. I can remember now. Staying up late at night to finish those assignments and then surprisingly getting another day to finish them if anything pending seemed like the biggest miracle in life.
But after high school, since there was no stress of studying anymore and we students had entered the adult world of being mature and responsible, rains started to appear less, how should I say, entertaining. Sometimes, meeting people would become difficult because of heavy rain that led to heavy traffic or fever. But still, it would be fun to sit in front of a window, get a warm cup of coffee and enjoy raindrops racing down your window or just enjoy the scenery as if that was the screensaver of our life. Life felt calm and peaceful just watching the rain.
As I entered the University of Waterloo where the weather was most of the time gloomy, going to buildings in rain required a huge amount of motivation. And when it was the exam season, I would hope that I don't catch fever while walking amid the exam. As an international student, having a vehicle was nearly impossible for me. There have been so many times that I had forgotten to wear a raincoat or carry an umbrella and things would feel worse when the rain hadn't stopped but I wished to go home. It's interesting now to think about how people like me change their views about rain over the years. Various factors can play in this, such as change of environment, change of friends, level of dependence/independence, and more.
Finally, a phase came when I got into, say a complex situation, with somebody. Not a friend, but more like an enemy, or at least a stranger. I developed an intense level of hatred towards them but decided to act as a bigger person to avoid further problems in my life. But, yet, it always feels they deserve a nice, tight scolding for how they have been a negative influence in my life. Then the pandemic started and I started recollecting about how our relationship could have been if we had talked or argued or just vented at each other. And whenever it rained, I always imagined that they were missing me too. There are sources about 'true friends going through same feelings' hence I feet confident that they were upset hurting me but didn't feel confident enough to confess to me about their mistakes.
To conclude, as a child I felt rain is just a nice friend to play with. As an adult, I realized rain is more like a background setting, as a complement, to various intense life stories playing along with ours.
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