Hello and welcome to our Beat Within community across the country and beyond! It’s a pleasure to have you with us for this latest issue, where incarcerated youth and adults share their perspectives, dreams, and important messages for the world at the large.
We have our good friend and colleague OT with us for our editorial note, who writes in depth about one of our weekly topics, “My Kind of Weather.” It was such a pleasure getting to know the types of weather that our writers identify with, as it signifies our deeper personality traits and the way we relate to our surroundings. Please join us in welcoming OT to our pages!
My Kind of Weather
We welcome you readers back to another stellar and double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. This is OT reporting to you live from the hot volcanic rocks of Managua, Nicaragua. It’s a privilege and honor to bring you guys the positive message of the week.
One of my favorite topics this week, out of all the great topics that we all had to choose from is “My Kind of Weather.” My kind of weather is normally the type of weather that never hits my country. For starters, it’s always hot here. It’s tropical weather here three hundred and sixty-five days a year. There are only two seasons in Nicaragua. There is only summer and winter.
Winter means that there’s more rain than there is during the summer time. But the rain doesn’t necessarily mean lower temperatures here. It only means that there will be rain. It could rain and still feel like ninety degrees. The summer time are the hottest days out of the year here, which are usually around April — which, in the US, that’s spring time.
Temperatures consistently hit ninety-four-plus degrees, plus the humidity, all the construction going on and the black top cement makes the climate hotter. For example, on my phone, it would usually say, “It’s ninety-two degrees but it should feel like ninety-seven.” That’s a normal day here in my country.
Now, If I could be any kind of weather, I would be a variety of weather all within the same day and night. I would be a slightly cold day, with a splash of sun in the morning, warming my cold face. After that, I would sprinkle a little bit of rain in the late afternoon. I would have a light drizzle from six to nine PM, that way everybody who gets off work and needs to commute can have clear visibility and get home safely. Then late at night around midnight, I would have it pour a little hard to hear the rain drops tap dancing on the roof, tink, tink, ta-tink, tink!
I would have the thunder roar like a lion just once so that all the kids in their homes feels the power of mother nature, while they are in their homes playing games with their siblings, on their tablets or their preferential device like an Xbox or a PlayStation.
Like the weather, within the same day, we all have our ups and downs, high temp, low temp. And within the same week, we have our ups and downs, and sometimes those weeks could turn into a whole month, months into a year, and a year into many years. You get the drift.
And funny while I’m writing this, I start thinking to myself, well, why do I want to compare my mood, my character and my persona to a weather which I have absolutely no control of?
If I sit here and wait for my favorite weather to arrive on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, whatever the day may be, I may never get to enjoy my actual day. I may not get to enjoy that nice, warm sunny day, because here I am being so selfish about wanting that rain to fall, and vice versa. If it’s raining and I’m waiting on that sun to come out, why not take the time to appreciate the rain and the orchestra of sounds that it may bring to my ears?
The truth is we all have preferences in many things in life, whether that be weather, food, clothing, but there are things in this world that are beyond our control, right? The weather is the main one because like food, to a certain extent, you can control what you eat. Clothes, depends on your situation, but weather is like waiting for your lucky number to come out in the Powerball Lottery.
Most of us go to sleep and should wake up happy that we are still alive to take a breath of fresh air — some fresher than others, obviously — that same morning. Many people don’t get that privilege. So, when I wake up today cursing for no reason for another hot day here in my country, I might as well accept the fact that I will never be in any kind of control of the weather, especially with all this climate change going on.
We may get to a point where summer time will be in January and winter in July. Who knows? The weather is soooooo unpredictable. However, there is one thing I can control, and that’s my mood and my positive energy. Whatever energy I decide to give today, will be the same energy that bounces back towards me, not only me, but my friends, family and loved ones.
I read some great writing from many of you week in and week out, and many of you always talk about your family and loved ones. Remember what you put out into this world is what you will get back in return. If you want the best for you and your family, well then give it your best. It doesn’t matter if it rains, or if the sun shines brighter than the neon lights in Vegas.
Back to the question (or the prompt), so what is my favorite weather? What type aligns with who I am?
I will tell you my perfect weather scenario: I don’t really care. If it’s sunny and the sun is cooking us all like ribs on the grill, I could easily imagine myself with my family at Raging Waters, going down the pool slides with nieces, my nephew, my sisters, my daughters, my son and my girl.
I imagine us all eating burgers, hotdogs, potato salad, BBQ ribs, macaroni and cheese (damn, I’m getting hungry!). The sun wouldn’t burn as hot on my skin because of the fun and laughter that I’m sharing with those that I love.
And if the weather decided to be cold and muggy with some slight rain, I would huddle up the family at the fifty yard line and ask them what play they want to call. Should we keep it indoors? Or should we hit the movies?
If it’s raining hard, most likely we’d stay indoors. We’d get something going on the Crock-Pot, order pizza for the kids, make popcorn and throw something that we could all enjoy on the LG screen, whether it be Disney or something on Netflix. The weather wouldn’t matter at all as long as I’m with the ones I love the most.
Now, that’s my kind of weather! One love to everybody! OT is signing off with the utmost love and respect for y’all. The Beat keeps going and going… long live David!
-OT
Thank you, OT, for sharing your own writing on our weekly topics and letting us in on the dynamic weather patterns of your home in Nicaragua and the weather patterns within your own mind and spriit. We love the scene you paint of all of us enjoying the weather together with great food and company!
And thank you to all of our writers, readers, and community members for the work you do to make this publication possible day in and day out. We couldn’t do it without your voice and support, and we’re eternally grateful for the opportunity to build a better world with you. Cheers to you, and to all the kinds of weather you hold — you keep The Beat Within open rain or shine!