Sweet Rain

Sweet Rain

In Billy Collins' poem "The Lanyard," Collins' speaker looked up the word, lanyard, in the dictionary, and by chance, it caused the speaker to think back to his childhood, his mother's sacrifices and the lessons she taught him. The poem made me recall the rain in South Vietnam. Although California is very far away from Vietnam, my feeling for rain in California is quite the same as my feeling for rain in South Vietnam. At the first time, I cried when I looked it had rained in California. The childhood memories suddenly come in my mind as the rain are falling down outside the windows. Rain causes me to think back to my happy childhood with the childish games in the rain, and my friends in Vietnam. Rain brought me life and a revival. It gave me hopes for a better future.

Every time it rains, I occasionally remember our interesting childish games in the rain. I grew up when our country had just ended a civil war. A new government came into power, and turned our country into an isolated and impoverished nation like North Korea is today. The poor children in my country neither had, nor knew about childish toys. Toys were luxury things the poor children like us dared not dream of. As the saying goes "Adversity brings wisdom," and we created and made games and toys ourselves by natural available materials around us. Every game or toy made was suitable to each season during the year. There are two main seasons in South Vietnam: a sunny and rainy season. We liked rainy season the most because we could take a bath in the rain and play together without fear for our parents' scolding. When it rained, the streets became our big play yards. My friends and I often called for each other and went playing outside together. We ran, hide, and chased each other. We rolled on the wet ground, laughed, and got wet together. We played soccer. Our childish paradise and happiness were very simple. When we were satiated with running and chasing, we changed games immediately....