It’s raining tonight. Just the slightest sprinkles that started around 6:30 p.m. It’s forecasted that we are going to have some thunderstorms in the area for the next few days. With my desk centered perfectly in front of the focal point of my room — a nearly 8 foot window — which has one the best views of any room in the towers I may add, I can watch the storms roll in over the city. I was always that kid that would smell rain on the wind and get really excited, or I would run outside right before a storm started and simply stand there, much to my parents’ dismay, feeling the energy surging through the air from everything living as electricity gathered in the sky. If you haven’t been able to infer it by now, I like storms, especially the rain that comes with them. I’ve always thought that rain is one of the most beautiful symbols of cleansing and restoration.
Alright, it’s story time. A new, young farmer buys his first plot of land in hopes of growing fruits and vegetables to not only feed his family but also to sell at the market. He just so happened to purchase a plot that bordered the land of an experienced farmer, face and arms wrinkled and roughened from a lifetime of tending and working the land that had been in his family for generations. The land was fertile and had produced plentiful harvests in the years past. Yet, a drought struck, and both the new and the experienced farmer waited for rain. The new farmer was impatient, and rightfully so. His entire life rested on the first few seasons of harvest. If they couldn’t grow their crops, they would starve. The old farmer spoke to the new farmer at length in regard to how they should handle the drought. He told him to prepare his fields as if the rain would come the very next day. Plow the fields, sow them, water them with the little water they did have, and wait for the rain. The young farmer had never heard anything so ridiculous! Why should he put so much effort into plowing the fields, sowing them, and watering them if there wouldn’t be rain anyways? They were in a drought, of course!
Even so, both the young farmer and the old farmer went out the very next day and plowed their fields and sowed them with seed, yet only the old farmer watered it, as the young farmer did not want to waste what he had, saying it was too early, and he should wait. Both farmers went to their homes that night, sat with their families, and hoped for rain. After nearly a month of waiting and hoping, a raging squall moved in and drenched the earth. The experienced farmer’s land soaked the water deep into the ground, as it had been prepared for the rain. He had a plentiful harvest that season. The new farmer’s field did not take the water, as the dry ground acted like a sheet of plastic over the earth, and it flooded his field, washing away the only seeds he had. In order to survive, the new farmer and his family were forced to sell the land and move elsewhere. The End.
Great job Lauren, you told a story about two farmers and some rain, I’m sure the readers will love that — it’s so entertaining. So really, what’s the point? Perhaps the story hinted at listening to a wise counsel, or perhaps it gives a nudge at taking calculated risks. Perhaps both. Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from time, life lived. So, sage advice given by elders may, at times, be a bit outdated, but it can be translated easily into the situations in our generation. So the advice given in regard to classes, jobs, friends, partners, or even simply waking up on time, should be heeded.
Just as the old farmer prepared his field for rain, knowing from experience what to do, your parents, your grandparents, and the trusted adults in your life also may have just a bit of experience in the areas of life that you are navigating right now. I’ve learned to mark their advice and store it in the file cabinets of my memory to reference when I need to. The topic of taking calculated risks is not as easily explained. But, in regard to the story, the young farmer could have taken the risk to use the little water he had and water his fields as the old farmer suggested. That risk would have yielded great reward. Yet, he chose the “safer” option, which only cost him in the end. Now, this does not mean to take the risk of one more pitcher of sangria on Sunday, in hopes you will wake up on time on Monday morning. But, it does encourage you to take calculated risks in your academics, in your social life, and in your career, as they are what will allow you to take great bounds towards your goals.
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