When you think about a rainy day what comes to your mind? What do you visualize? Having your coffee in one hand and a book in the other, sitting by the window with a blanket over your body, spending the day reading in this cozy environment? Trying to get to places without being late because of the crazy traffic? Or maybe a romantic walk with your partner under the rain with your umbrella? These different images could change the entire effect that rain has on a person. It could ruin your day just as easily as it makes it romantic and dreamy. But what about the emotional connotations of rain on a person? What do those say about us? What happens when you have a rainy month or even a rainy life? 

 

For me, there are two types of rain. One is similar to the rains that we witness during the spring or fall. It’s when you go out and dance and sing along on a rainy day. It’s when you’re laying by the beach and it suddenly rains so you decide to swim while it’s raining, rather than to run away from it. This type of rain elevates a person. It energizes them. It’s fun and exciting to be a part of its existence. When you come home after a day of experiencing this happy rain, you look back at the day you’ve just had and can’t stop smiling. There is no other reaction you can give other than that huge grin on your face. This is the type of rain that reminds you why life is worth living. 

 

The other part of the rain isn’t so glamorous. One could even classify it as dark, even scary. It’s when there is a big, gray, emotional cloud above your head. When there is no spark in your eyes, your undereyes give the impression that you haven’t slept for days. When you don’t want to get up, brush your teeth, do your hair because you see absolutely no meaning beneath them.  This is the type of rain that causes natural disasters, otherwise known as being an emotional wreck: when you hate everybody and don’t enjoy your daily activities anymore, when you see no point in trying. When this rain comes pouring down in your life with that huge cloud of devastation; it’s hard to make it stop, to see sunshine again, to remember how and why you enjoyed being under the rain. This is when you get so soaked that you start shivering. 

 

Both rains build the opposite sides of life, and sooner or later we as humans are bound to endure both. One minute you will be dancing, singing, with an energy so bright that even the sun looks vapid next to it. You are living life to the fullest, you get up each day with a smile on your face. It feels like nothing can break you, like you can take on anything that they throw at you. You feel inspired to live. Life is not just a collection of days that you have to get through. It’s more than that. It becomes your entire identity. You’re not focused on the rain, because you’re certain that a rainbow will follow it. That’s how thrilling life is when you experience a happy rain. But then one day you get a phone call; your mom walks in the room and starts talking and it all turns upside down. Suddenly there is no rainbow, there is just rain. There are big black clouds hanging over you and under your eyes. You can’t sleep, maybe can’t eat. That couple minutes the reality of your life, the little bubble you were in bursts open. It feels like it’s all going up in flames. Even if you try to be strong, you can’t stop the rain, that cold feeling when you get soaked. You can’t take it back. And it's just so…helpless. You keep doing what you do but now instead of singing and dancing you’re just sighing because you can’t bring yourself to give any other reaction. It’s a fight everyday between being strong and taking it like a champ and trying to fix the broken pieces. It all seems so pointless. The routines that once kept you going and boosted your energy now don’t make you feel anything other than dread. You’re tired of talking and tired of walking and tired of trying. You just want to go back to the singing and the dancing. You just want to be able to see the rainbow after the rainy days.