I go on a bike ride every single day after school.  The fresh air, the chirping of birds, it never seems to get old. I always end up going the same way every time. Turn onto Morning Mist drive to start , and end up on Fishers Path. No changes, just the same old ride each time. If I really concentrated, I bet I could do the whole ride with my eyes close. Forty pedals.....then turn right....thirty-two pedals and then a left......Although it seems that the bike ride makes me bored, I look forward to it every day. Because when I'm on my bike ride, there is no stress, no need to think, and nothing that I have to do. I can just relax and it gives me time to have to myself, to think about the world around me. 

So one afternoon it had rained, just about all day. It was muggy and gray outside, so everyone was indoors, probably playing video games. (Or something related to that).  Definitely not the most pleasant day in Michigan. Despite that, I still decided to go on a bike ride. A little exercise can't hurt, right? So off I went on my bike ride, turning on to Morning Mist drive. But I soon discovered that it was hard to breathe and my clothes were sticking to my body, in the muggy heat. I contemplated turning around. I could tell that this wasn't going to be a joyful ride. So I did. I didn't want to be in this awful weather, I could imagine myself relaxing on the couch and watching tv. The more I thought about it, the more motivated I got to keep heading back to my house. But then suddenly, something bright had caught my eye. So I whipped my head in the direction that I saw it. My neighbor's front porch. And on the front porch, there lay a bunch of purple flowers, sitting in three separate pots. They stuck out like black against white, I was surprised that I I had missed them before. I didn't think my neighbors were home, so I got off my bike and took a few steps closer towards the purple flowers. From where I was standing, I could see that they glistened with water, from the rain that had just stopped abruptly 30 minutes ago. And even in this muggy heat and gray skies, that we seemed to be having, these flowers had coped with the weather and actually benefited from it. Because they were absolutely gorgeous, they looked so pretty with the water speckled all over it. They didn't let the rain overtake them, destroy them, or even flush them out. The flowers had taken something bad (the rain) and turned it into something good. They had a different perspective on the rain than everyone else did. And with that thought leaving my head, I thought about my brother, out of all people. Who was playing video games up in his bedroom right then, because it had rained and everything was soaked. He was being given something bad and then responding with something worse. He didn't take advantage of the rain like the flowers did. My brother was just like everybody else who had experienced the rain. Not seeing the advantage that the flowers saw or the perspective that they had. I believe that everyone can learn something when I say that when you are given a problem, don't work around it, drive straight through it, and when you finish, emerge stronger than you did before you even knew the problem existed. Take advantage of what you are given, just like the beautiful purple flowers did.