The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Portia

Image by: Ashley Barron

Angrily jamming my feet into my rubber boots, I curse Mother Nature for the vindictive harpy she must certainly be. Here it comes again, this rain – the enemy of suede, picnics and anyone whose hair holds the propensity to frizz. And since I don’t believe in umbrellas – they’ve let me down on too many occasions – I also throw on a hooded raincoat.

What happened to summer?

Teetering on the edge of July, we should have already endured multiple heat alerts, smog advisories (for those of us living in pollution meccas, like Toronto) and UV indices in the melanoma range. Instead, we get buckets of rain. The sun, purveyor of glorious days at the beach and random freckles, appears to have abandoned us.

It could be worse, though. It could be winter.

Sure, the rain is depressing. In fact, it has been linked to high rates of depression in places like Seattle, where they average about 158 days of measurable rain a year. In India, however, monsoon season is a welcome meteorological event and this year they have witnessed a dramatic drop in the amount of H2O falling from the sky. This has direct implications for agriculture – and feeding a country of over a billion people is no small feat.

Getting a little wet doesn’t carry the threat of losing a finger or a toe to frostbite. It might make wearing flip-flops tricky but at least you don’t have a two pound winter boot strapped to each foot. You don’t have scarves strangling you or hats obscuring your vision while you struggle to remember where you lost your other glove. Wouldn’t you rather feel the gentle splash of a raindrop on your nose than icy needles camouflaged as snowflakes? Jumping through puddles is infinitely more appealing than scaling the drifts during a snowstorm. And long, romantic walks with your boyfriend, or girlfriend, are just that – long and romantic. No mad dashes to escape the bitter cold.

Another plus: your car starts up instantly. Windshield wipers glide effortlessly over the glass.  Sidewalks cease to be obstacle courses of ice and slush, threatening to send you crashing to the ground.

Even in the presence of so much rain, summer is about stripping away layers. Feeling the air on our skin. We spend so much of the year shrouded in wool or fleece in an effort to stave off the cold.  A little summer rain is not a good enough reason to hide from summer. Get outside. Get a little wet. Eventually, the sun does come out.

As for me, I’ll take a raincoat over a shovel any day.

• Features
• It Could Be Worse