Rain, Rain, Come Again

Rain, rain go away, come again another day.

We've all heard it before, no doubt we all have at least sung it in our childhoods' at some point. But why does rain have to go away? Why does everyone always seem to moan and groan at the thought of rain? It seems as if every other person is a bit bummed on rainy mornings. Why is that so?

Yesterday at Khane (Mosque), I was asked to help teach the kindergarten class because one of their teachers was not there. The topic of the day was rain and water. It was also quite ironic that it happened to be raining that day. We discussed how although sometimes rain puts a damper to our days, it is also such a necessity. Without water, the plants and animals would be unable to live. Some people long for nothing but clean water, while us fortunate citizens are blessed with always having fresh water by the push of a button or turn of a knob. Yet we never take the time to appreciate it. Rather, we complain. We complain that it messes up our hair or ruins our plans. We complain that it tampers with our moods. In reality, some people have just made it a mindset that rain equals moody and bad day. Rain should be looked at as a blessing from above. We seem often times to forget that rain is something beyond our control and not just another part of our daily lives. I myself love the rain. I love watching thunderstorms and lightening. Falling asleep while listening to the steady, heavy downfall of rain while being wrapped in a nice blanket always seems to bring the best sleep. It's just so serene. Rain can bring upon so many emotions; there's some sort of soothing concept attached to rain, yet at times it brings upon a more hectic and exciting atmosphere. Either way, rain should simply be embraced. Running through the rain and carelessly dancing through it can be so much fun when you just let yourself free to enjoy your surroundings and alter your mindset to see it as a positive aspect.

Recently, it seems as if it rains on big events, events with prior anticipation. The day of my first (and second) Majalas, the day of my Sixteenth Birthday Party, the day of Cross Country Time Trials, and the list goes on. I remember wondering, on each of these occasions "oh mann, why does it have to rain today of all days?!". I remember questioning the outcome of the events because of the rain. But now that I think about it, maybe it's no coincidence, and maybe it's no punishment. Maybe it's God's way of saying good luck? Maybe it's a mini blessing. Or maybe I'm over-analyzing it. Regardless, I still believe rain is beautiful and more people should learn to appreciate it rather than look down upon it. So maybe next time we see rain, we should see it through different eyes, see it as the beauty it really is.

The New School Year

These days, the youths of our society are continuously failing to reach their full-potential in most tasks they're faced with. They do homework to get it done, not to learn. They talk to family for the sake of having a conversation rather than to cherish the time together. They go to work, spending the day counting down till when they can go home. But by living life in this manner, you're no longer appreciating life. You're zooming through it as if the next day will hold something miraculous. But the next day is still mundane, and once again, you're just trying to get through it. Soon years go by and you wonder what happened to those days. What happened was your life silently flew by in your attempt to get through each event. No significance was attached to each indivisual event; rather, the days are remembered in mass. Recollection can no longer be made because there was no attempt to live it up. Time is precious and shouldn't be wasted in such a manner; it should be taken full advantage of by dedicating full effort and desire, regardless of the task. Living in this manner will do no harm, and rather will help in the future because you're full potential will be attained.

As summer was ending, I, like most others, was dreading returning back to school. I wasn't ready to have to wake up early every morning and do a bunch of homework. It didn't seem anywhere near as pleasing as staying up late and having time to hang out friends whenever I pleased. I knew that as soon as school would start, my life would basically be over. Two days prior to the end of summer, I had to go to school as a Link Leader in an attempt to guide the freshmen and teach them valuable lessons by playing games. I woke up in the morning dreading it, hating myself for waking up early for some freshmen. As I got to school, I reunited with some friends and made some new ones as well. Music started playing and we started pumping ourselves up as freshmen walked in to excite them about school. As silly as it sounds, trying to pump them up actually ended up pumping me up! I was starting to love helping out, because I was having so much fun being involved at the same time. That instant my whole perspective on junior year changed. I didn't want to just get through it; I didn't want to spend the whole year dreading each upcoming day. I wanted to do it. Everything. And that's precisely what I'm doing. I got myself involved with everything I could in every aspect of my life. Cross Country, Swimming, Soccer, Kameryanima (Religious Leader), fasting for Ramadan, Link Crew, Interact, Village in Action, Tutoring freshmen, Habitat for Humanity, and not to mention officially being in the IB Program now. I know it sounds so crazy, lately people keep asking me how I'm managing it all, especially Cross Country and Fasting at the same time. Honestly, I don't know how I'm doing it. I don't know how I'm able to actually handle all these things and still manage to be alive. All I know is that I absolutely love always being involved. I love meeting new people and I love being busy, knowing I'm doing something productive. I just feel motivated to just do everything, and that motivation has made me excited for school. The first thing that used to come to mind when I thought of school was "Hell." And it still is for most others too. But honestly, right now I'm loving it. It's managable if you stay on top of things, you just have to keep yourself motivated to do it. There's so many opportunities school brings along with it, and you just have to learn to take advantage of them. I realize how wonderful it is that I'm enjoying school, because I'm going to be spending a majority of the next two years at school, so I might as well love it. It'll make the experience so much better than if I spend the time dreading it. So now I feel ready to take on whatever the year has to throw at me, because I feel motivated to overcome it and use it to my benefit. I can feel the difference in myself too. Now I feel as if I'm enjoying actually learning. I feel as if I'm going to school to actually shape and improve myself in every subject, not just make the grades. I guess it's a sense of maturity that dawned over me, I'm not quite too sure. All I know is that I can feel the difference. The change in mentality. I feel as if I'm suddenly awakening. I'm done wasting time and I'm ready to make a difference; ready to be the best I can be.

Your Attitude is in Your Hands

“Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us.”

This quote is so true. Your day is only as bad as you let it be. If you're the kind of person that, cliche i know, "cries over spilled milk," you're gonna spend your time dwelling and being upset about things you can't fix. By continuing to be upset, you're preventing yourself from having a good time and are missing out on other experiences and other opportunities. I have a friend who used to say "I don't believe in bad days." I used to not agree with him because everyone has a bad day right? But the reality is, one event doesn't have to spoil your whole day. You can have a day with the occurrence of a few unpleasant events, but still have a good day by picking yourself up. By accepting what happened and moving on. It's much more effective than having a bad attitude for the rest of the day and bumming out others around you as well. Whether you realize it or not, your attitude does effect others. If you're in a bad mood because something happened to you, chances are, those around you will sense it as well. It's very likely that the bad vibe will spread around. It's one thing to put yourself in a bad mood, but it's another to negatively effect the moods of those around you as well.

"A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln. So train your mind to think happy. To look past imperfections. To make the most of things. Don't just sit in solitude and dwell on it and make yourself even more depressed. Think about how this negative event could be a positive thing. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe this event that you currently find a bad thing will open new doors in the future. Don't let the events in your life control your attitude. You control your life by taking control of your attitude. There's so many things in this world that you can be upset about. But the choice is yours whether you want to let the bad bog down on your life, or if you want to look past it and make the most of things. Time is limited, so don't spend it dwelling on what you can't change.