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The Rotunda
Friday, July 4, 2025

When It Rains, It Pours

Growing up, I never really knew what "When it rains, it pours" meant. But lately, it has become one of my favorite expressions. It seems that whenever one important thing is happening in life, a million other things compound with it, making life stressful and difficult. It can be true about anything, from homework and car trouble to relationship issues and family drama. Not just one bad thing happens at a time.

In the past few weeks, I've been super busy. I've been traveling back and forth between school and home to get everything in order for my trip to Spain next semester. Last weekend, my roommate and I went all the way to Washington, D.C. to apply for our visas. Filling out all of that paperwork and planning our trip has been incredibly stressful. All of this study abroad induced stress mixed with the typical college workload, an unfortunate speeding ticket, a history conference in Baltimore and a bunch of other random happenstances, add up to a veritable stress hurricane.

But I've still had to find time in life for the simple things that bring me joy. It's important to always stop and smell the roses, even in the middle of a storm. When you have a to do list on your desk that's three pages long, sometimes you just have to push it aside and go get coffee with your friends, take a walk or watch an episode of your favorite TV show. I find that in order to do my best work, I have to have a clear mind. If I don't take a break from whatever has me down, I don't do my best work. It's important to realize that no matter what's going on in life, you have to appreciate the little things and have fun. Chances are whatever is stressing you out isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, to me, that traffic ticket I got a few weeks ago in Cumberland seemed like the end of the world. But I know that I am not the first college student to get a ticket for going 51 in a 35 and cry very loudly in front of a police officer. I know even though I'm upset about it right now, life will go on, and in a few years, I probably won't even think about it. The same thing goes for my less than perfect grades in Accounting, my pending visa application and my bad cell phone service. These are just petty things, and I can't let them control my outlook on life.

It's true that I have an Accounting Exam to study for, two papers to write and some serious reading to do, and they're all weighing heavily on the back of my mind. But tonight, I decided to take it easy. I found the time to do quite a bit of work, but I stopped myself in time to watch my friends "Indian leg wrestle" in the lounge, listen to some Fleetwood Mac and Skype my best friend for some much needed girl talk.

My friends here have been pretty helpful in getting me through this recent downpour. Whether I'm joking with Charlie about Communism, watching "Saturday Night Live" skits with Jamie or running silly errands on "roommate adventures" with Ashton, I'm taking a much needed break from everything that makes life difficult. It's important to have that sort of balance.

Life is hard; there's no need to make it harder. Even in the middle of terrifying amounts of stress, people still manage to go out and have a great time. When it rains, it pours; I hear hurricane parties are pretty fun.

The most stressful times in your life also make you appreciate the few lazy days. Sometimes it's important to do nothing at all. When you don't have any homework due in the next week, live it up a little bit. This is the time to go on an adventure.

I find that the best thing to do when it's pouring outside is to put on my favorite yellow rain jacket and my plaid rain boots and go play in the puddles. If for some reason you don't have rain boots, then just walk around the puddles, and you can always invest in a good umbrella. Yes, life can be stressful, and it's not uncommon for it to seem as if everything is going wrong at once, but you need to go out and enjoy it anyway, and never get hung up in the mud.

So as exams loom over us, the holidays bring crazy family drama to your attention and the weather starts to get cold and gloomy, remember that it's important to have fun no matter what.  Keep up the good work and reward yourself with a break.

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