Boy Lilikoi - Jonsi
Florence + The Machine - “No Light”
When I was younger, I always loved the rain. It was mysterious, magical, very musical. The feeling of holding onto an umbrella half my size to protect myself from getting wet but simultaneously unable to resist jumping into large puddles made me laugh from the inside out. In all its beauty, rain was much more colorful than sunshine. Much more lyrical in its sound, much more poetic in its science. It was organic in nature, raw in its power. It, in essence, defined the very facets of childhood. Quite frankly, I don’t remember seeing another child at the time who despised the rain. For the most part, everyone (wet or dry) my age found it to be very exciting.
But along the way, wherever the Christmas spirit, innocence, and all the like drifted, so did a fascination and appreciation for rain. Every single time it rains I hear someone speak about how much they dread it, and it always strikes a nerve in me. We somehow came to need sunshine to determine our moods and desire to enjoy life. We need the warmth and comfort of the sun for us to have a good day. The fact of the matter is that any day has the potential to be a darn good day, in the same way it equally has the potential to be a darn awful day. At one point in time, we never seemed to let a little water bother us. Rain or shine, we always found reason to laugh and appreciate each given day without even knowing it.
I still like the rain, and I hope that’s one of the few pleasures I don’t lose in life. I walk in it, sometimes slowly even with my head pointed skyward. I close my eyes and pay close attention to how each drop feels different when it lands on my skin. The pitter-patter of water against cement and steel gets caught in my ears, and a smile finds its way across my face as I remember why life is beautiful. And I continue to move forward.
It’s hard not to separate you from the music, so I simply choose to not listen to it at all.
And this is how it goes…
Life in the past month or so seems to have caught me in free fall - everything’s a homogenous mass of sights, colors, and sounds. At the same time, it seems as if I’ve existed in a vacuum, seeing everything pass and yet still able to recollect them as well.
Summer, as it went, was a great test of curiosity, intellect, and resilience. No need to really go there anymore, as I’ve explained it before. But after two weeks at home - a short time, but possibly as much as I could bear being back - I headed back to help TA for a class. Those two weeks went by just as quickly as the months preceding it, and classes started. While I have picked up much in the way of academic endeavors, I don’t have too much to report from my observances of social behavior except for a paltry few.
I never thought occupying the bottom rung of the social ladder was something to be ashamed of, and in fact I found it to be somewhat empowering in the past. It gave me more reason to aspire to test my own limits and explore on my own. But when one of my friends had given me an odd look a few days ago for only growing up with “public television” (the person in question never experienced life without cable television) and commented days later “It’s hard to go shopping when I only have poor friends,” I felt an odd pang of embarrassment for not having a bank account spilling over with the green stuff. Luckily, I came to my senses and realized that even money can’t treat human ignorance. It can mask and cloak it, but in no way extinguish it. If being “poor” (whatever that means) allows a person to be more empathetic toward more of the population, then count me in.
Also, modesty, just as with confidence, is good in moderation.
And lastly, I feel I’d like to live far away from the place I knew when I grow up.
The Cinematic Orchestra - “To Build a Home”
The next important thing to believing that you can do anything is knowing that you can’t.
Most people can disagree, but these are the best days. Rain is nature’s poetry.
(Source: fromme-toyou)
I really didn’t expect myself to feel this way, but I have more reason to stay than to go home. Before I thought home was running away from me, but now I just want to run away from home.
