Second Rain

Second Rain

The second rain of the pre-monsoon season has hit Sangam. I have taken quite a few pictures which I will upload to my FB account. Gwen, Pria, Hayley, and I decided to get wet because the second rain of the season is cleaner than the first. The first has acid in it and it is not advisable to play in it. As we played in the rain, I was reminded of a time quite a few years ago when I also played in the rain.

I remember being a naive 19 year old moving across the country to work at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This was not my first time away from home, but it was not first move by myself. I think I made it to Arizona in like 1 ½ days. I was scared out of my mind. The first night there I cried my eyes out because that was the first time that I felt utterly alone. This was the day and age where cell phones were barely popular and totally not affordable. I could only call home when I had money on my calling card because my Dad had an aneurism over the collect call bill. I didn't know who I was. All I knew was that I was free. All the cares and responsibilities of home were gone. At the time I wanted to get residency in Arizona so I could attend ASU. Over time the homesickness subsided, but there were still occasions where I would give anything in the world to have the comforts of home. I was slowly coming to the realization that my dream to attend ASU would not work out after all. I remember praying about moving back home and trying desperately to make the right decision. Then one night I was walking from the employee dorms to El Tovar (the restaurant I worked at) when my prayers were finally answered. I was to move home! I went straight upstairs to my boss's office and gave my two weeks notice. I was so overwhelmed that I called home and asked my parents to help me move back home. I don't know where my Mom and Dad found the money, but they found enough to fly my Mom to Phoenix to drive back with me to Mississippi. I remember pacing anxiously in the Phoenix airport. When my Mom came out of the gate, we ran to each other ,cried and held one another. That was the day that I started calling my Mom, Momma and my Dad, Daddy. In the South to call your parents Momma and Daddy shows a great amount of love and respect. To this day at my ripe old age of 28, I still call my parents Momma and Daddy.

I guess to make the long story somewhat short is that we will fail at certain times in our lives, and it is okay! We are only human. If we were to succeed all the time, what would we learn? We would not have mistakes that we've made in the past help shape our future. If we do not know the bitter, we will not know the sweet. What I learned by living in Arizona, taught me that no matter what, we will make it through it all. I carried those same lessons learned with me when I moved to Taiwan and now living in India. Life is too short to be living in the past. Learn from life's lessons and move forward. There is sweet beauty all around us if we would only recognize it.