Shannon Shouts: Raindrops Don't Kill

Why is it that every time the Provo sky releases a speck of precipitation, the campus is covered in umbrellas? I grew up in Silverdale, Washington: a land right across the water from Seattle, a land that gets an average 54 inches of rain a year as opposed to the 20.13 inches of precipitation that annually falls upon Provo. In Silverdale, you can count on just about everyone to have an umbrella in the trunk of their car, but when the sky starts releasing it’s wet drops of joy, the umbrellas remain safely tucked away in the trunks of every car where they shall remain for the entirety of the year, whether the weather is outrageously wet or not. This is why I try hard to suppress my guffaws of laughter when it’s merely misting and people whip out their umbrellas of assorted sizes and colors, and those that are umbrella less begin sprinting for the nearest building. I watch the show as I soak in the sweet smell of rain and stroll to my next class at a leisurely pace with a smirk adorning my gorgeous face. I find the antics of BYU students outrageously entertaining during wet whether because their attempts to remain dry waste time and generally fail in the end. Umbrellas only protect from rain over head, and if the users somehow manage to remain dry on the way to their destination, they still have a wet bunch of fabric to carry around. Today, I was astounded to see someone carrying an umbrella to shelter her from the snow! I was amazed that someone could be so afraid of precipitation that they would seek protection from snowflakes. Washingtonians have generally forsaken the hassle of umbrellas and all the wet space they take up and the time it takes to find and store them. Umbrellas are handy when sitting in dreary whether, such as when viewing a soccer game on a rainy day, but when rushing to a class, or into a store, umbrellas are a pointless waste of one’s time. BYU students should be smart enough to see the waste that umbrellas are and embrace precipitation for the glorious asset to nature that it is.