Growing up in Massachusetts, yes it's important to spell the whole state because at the age of 6 when you can do that you are a cool kid. At the age of 26, probably not that cool, unless you are from this wonderful state. Anyway, that was totally off subject, growing up when it rained it always smelled like I was an ant in a giant rose garden - the most overwhelming smell of new life. Everything smelled so perfect and gave nature a fresh start, not just for the furry friends living outside, but for all us people living in homes too.
The same smells followed me to WA - yep its more important in this state to shorten everything. WA, B'ham, The Islands, Spo-kompton (okay that's not a short one) - you get the idea. Anyway, the smells there lasted all year round because lets face it when it rains for 26 days straight it takes a while for the freshness to wear off given so much of it has built up. However rain took on new meanings - not just the overwhelming sense of being placed in the middle of a garden.
First year brought endless puddle wars with the boy who was my best friend and I fell in love with. Laughing for hours and sitting soaked in a class room next to each other for an hour while we giggled and made new puddles in doors, somehow was the lightheartedness I needed in an otherwise stressful and strange environment. Some people went abroad to find themselves, I just went to college 3000 miles away from my life to find my heart. I just never figure out how to fall out of love with that boy that brought so much entertainment and fun to my life.
Sophomore year it brought about long walks from the library back to south campus. At some point in those walks I would stop caring that I was soaked to the bone and would take up residency on the steps between Parks Hall and the Enviro Building. It had this view of normalcy over south campus which at this point of my life was much needed because I had a hurt heart, roommates that couldn't understand life without drama, and a boy taking interest in me that treated me like I was the only girl on campus. This was all very strange and new in my world - the rain could wash away all the fears that would sweep over me and could hide any tears shed on those steps while I found the strength to smile again.
Junior year the rain became a style almost - I had new friends, some "old" great ones still around, a new life, and it was always just there while I was on my way to more adventures. It was more like a comfort. I like rain this way. Comfort rain.
Senior year - this last 1.5 years if you want to get technical. Double majors with a minor aren't the fastest way to a diploma, just a faster way to the library. I lived on north campus and life was becoming my own. I would sit on my deck and watch it pour and rush down the cliff slopes back to the bay. It was still a comfort except on Friday mornings walking to my 8am econometrics class after a night out at the bars - I never said I was the most logical of students - I would dread the rain on those Fridays.
Back to the east side after college I don't remember much of rain. Other than it never came Monday thru Friday while I worked, but came just in time for Friday nights in Saratoga and stayed through the weekend to ruin any plans of enjoying parks and working out outside.
Moving to Arizona - no body is really from here so everyone does their own thing with names - brought a whole new understanding of what rain accomplishes. In a desert it doesn't soak in and bring a smell of growth and life. It turns the dust to mud, the streets to rivers, and leaves behind a musty smell of a dirty attic - funnily enough no one has attics down here. For a year I couldn't stand it, then I moved to my current location and it became a neighborhood party when it rained. Everyone out on their decks to watch it downpour for the 30 minutes to an hour that it will stay. Conversations were had with interruptions of thunder and lightning, followed by laughs because the daughter of the lightning man jumped every time. Rain ='s hours of fun. Now with those friends gone and life moving forward, it bring memories of everything rain can be in a persons life. It might not make sense so some, but to me rain is about love, friends, and laughter. What else is there in life?
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