What most people do not seem to realize about the rain in Seattle is that, in its beauty, there is also a rather large sense of lethargy. The rain appears to you however you imagine it to appear. It could be your ecstasy or your opium. This day, it was unfortunately, my opium. As I wearily walked along the hallways of school, I felt that mentally and physically shutdown. The shiftlessness of the day just seemed to carry on. I felt as if I was on wet gray cloud. For I had just taken a test that day and I was still perspiring. The hallway was dark because the outside was dark.
As I walked down hallway, from one room to the other, I heard a distinct voice that could only be one person. This person was Ryan Gifford. I continued to trudge along in the same rut I had dug from walking along those hallways for thirteen years, but Ryan's distinct voice kept rising higher and higher. Eventually I turned around, half asleep, to see what the commotion was. It was then that I had realized that it was me that he was yelling for. "What's up Big Baby Cadwell?" he yelled even though he was only two feet away from me. Ryan and I had developed a pretty good friendship through baseball the previous year, but I hardly felt like talking to him. "Nothing much Gifford what's goin' on," I replied only halfway using my mind. It was the same meaningless small talk as always. After we had parted ways I kept at a steady yet leisure pace to my next class, but it was only another twenty feet that I had walked when I heard another familiar voice call my name. Yet again I found myself talking to another person. Jackson McKenna-Kier ran up to me and without warning gave me a hug. I was not sure why he had given me a hug, but I did not question it. He and I small talked once again. Jackson and I were good friends through my years of playing football at Seattle Christian.
Once again I started down the hallway, but this time not so mechanically. I had soon found that I was no longer down in the dumps, rather I was sort of refreshed. And I, to my dried and bloodshot eyes, had seen that the sun was breaking up through the clouds. In Seattle this not so uncommon a thing. Almost everyday this happens, but to me it started to mean something. To my own acknowledgment, I had a new pace on the way to class. I went from the ponderous step of an elephant to the almost seemingly transparent glide of a cheetah. Everywhere I had now walked through in the school, more and more people stopped to ask me how my day was going. It was in this moment that I had realized that I had friends from all parts and walks of life.
I had a friend from my math class walk up to me followed by a friend from band that I had once done. However, it did not stop there. I had a friend that I had previously played Xbox with last night walk up to me, then another friend from baseball, once again two of my friends that I used to play with in band. It seemed to continue forever, but. It was in this moment that I had realized that I was not an outcast that did not fit in everywhere, on the contrary, I was a well-rounded person that fit in everywhere! From baseball, football, band, and math, I was everyone's friend! My mind raced back through all of these memories from all of these parts that had made up my life. I thought of the most inspirational award I had won in baseball. I thought of the three years since I was a freshman that I had lettered on varsity for football. I remembered the fun I had playing six different instruments at one time or another. I remembered that I had been in the multiple advanced classes. The memories overwhelmed me to the point where I was almost laughing at how foolish I had been to walk alone in the hallways, pretending like I was the only one in my own little world. How minute this had all seemed, but how could I possibly forget about all of this. I was so ecstatic that it was on my mind until I went to sleep that night.
I look back on it now and see that through my participation in all of these things I had gained friends, some life-long even. Most of friends say that I am a very friendly and charismatic person. They say that I am very inquisitive and know when and how to make someone laugh when they need to. I now use this to walk down the hallways of my school, not sulking in my own isolation, but talking to everyone I can; regardless of people I do and do not know. I wish to make everyone's day brighter like they had mine. In the end I realized, it rains to much in Seattle for me to see the rain as an opium, so I mine as well look for the beauty in it even in the ugliest of weather.
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