When Was The Last Time You Lived Without A Plan?

This weekend I walked through Paris in the rain. It wasn’t much more than a slow drizzle, but it was enough to scatter haphazard puddles of varying depths. It was enough to make frazzled tourists jump into the nearest cab or hide under the awning of a café. It was enough to darken the sky at only 5 p.m. and create a blanket of fog over the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

But my friends and I didn’t sit at the nearest restaurant to wait it out. We didn’t order an Uber to go back to our apartment. We didn’t duck inside the nearest museum to wander aimlessly until the weather cleared. We walked down the very center of a muddy dirt path that, in the sunlight, houses a charming garden overlooking the Louvre on one end and the Champs Élysées on the other.

In the rain, it was little more than a sodden trail in the fog. But no one seemed to care. Parisian couples casually walked hand-in-hand, sharing an umbrella, stopping occasionally to kiss one another or to marvel at Paris in the rain. We walked alongside the nonchalant, dampened couples and admired the way the lights from the street lamps reflected in the water pooling at our feet.

We walked through the rain for about an hour, pausing only once to warm up with a steaming hot cup of coffee. We didn’t have a plan. We didn’t have GPS. We spoke in broken French, laughed and followed the golden lights of the Eiffel Tower back to our apartment.

There was no plan, no rush, no commitments. We talked, walked and admired a foreign city in its natural beauty. Our phones had died, so there were no photo-ops or Snapchat videos to document the moment. We documented each feeling, sight or sound in our minds only, and it made the experience even more beautiful.

But when was the last time I’d done this? Aimlessly walked? Felt such powerful emotions and seen such beauty without capturing it on camera? Slowed down? Didn’t worry about where I was going or how I’d end up getting there? Lived, just for the hell of it?

When was the last time you did?

How to Have a Bad Day

When I wake up in the morning, I slowly pull apart the blinds next to my bed. Then, I either groan as I fall back against my pillows because there is some form of precipitation coming from the sky or I debate skipping class because the sun is shining.

Either way, I slowly pull myself out of bed, drag myself to the bathroom to do my hair and makeup and coordinate my outfit based on the proper footwear for the weather.

Today it is raining. Rain boots it is.

Rain boots are heavy, clunky and simultaneously make my feet really cold and really hot. Plus, they look very awkward when paired with yoga pants so I’m forced to put on jeans, AKA leg prisons.

Then I pull on my rain jacket, which is too thin when it’s a cold rain but too confining when it’s a warm and humid rain. I have to make sure I remember my umbrella too, even though it turns inside-out with high winds.

After about 5 minutes of walking across campus, my hair that I took time to straighten is now frizzy, my makeup has practically melted off my face and my wet jeans are uncomfortably sticking to my legs.

Once inside, finally away from the rain, all motivation drains from my body. There are fewer things more depressing than watching the rain fall.

Rainy days are the kind of days that make you want to curl up in bed under several blankets and drink green tea while watching movies. They don’t exactly motivate me to sit in the dreary, dim library studying for a biology exam.

Rain sucks. If you want to have a bad day, just go to class in the rain. Bonus points if it’s a Monday.