I woke up this morning, went to the gym, took a shower, and drank my cup of coffee. As I sat in my room I thought to myself, “Wow, okay, this will be a good day.” All of my assignments were done and I would be on time to class. As I was taking my mug back to the kitchen I noticed a light beating sound on the roof above me. I glanced out the window and, much to my dismay, I saw the rain pouring down from the gray sky in huge gusts.
I quickly and sadly realized that my “good day” was not going to be so good after all. I was now forced to wear waterproof boots, carry a stupid umbrella between classes, and worry about the books in my backpack getting wet. Not to mention my hair would be frizzy from the humidity, and cross country practice later in the afternoon would likely consist of running through the pouring rain.
As I trudged into my roommate’s bedroom and fell on the floor in disgust, she looked up from her computer and asked, “What’s wrong?” I looked angrily out the window, and then back at her. “It’s raining,” I said blatantly. She shrugged absently, looked back at her computer, and said something simple but surprisingly important. “It sounds nice, like a band of mini drummers.”
As I began preparing my rain gear for the long walk down to campus, her words remained in my head. “Like a band of mini drummers.” I’d never thought about rain sounding like drums. To be honest, I’d never really thought about the sound of rain at all. Ever since I got to CMU and had to actually walk to and from class, rain had become nothing more than a nuisance that insisted on turning my hair into a rat’s nest. “Like a band of mini drummers.”
We can all learn something from my roommate, who cared more about the sound of the rain than its unfortunate negative outcomes. We’ll all spend four or more years at this school whether we like it or not. When I’m 80 years old, I want to look back and feel like I enjoyed my college experience as much as I possibly could. This morning I was going to walk to campus lamenting about how the rain was soaking through to my socks. Instead, I marched to campus to the sound of the Little Drummer Boy, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. What will your song be?
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