They told me that the weather might affect me later in life, but I did not believe them, and I thought it was an old wives’ tale.

Now I am in so much pain because a rain system has hunkered down in the state where I live. One storm after the other comes across the horizon.

I get it now.

Why do people live in warm places with no rain at all?

Truthfully, I loathe the idea, but I might have to start considering it.

As much as I despise humidity, dry climates annoy me even more. Of course, I know that I am a spoiled person.

Most people just look out into the world and take it by its horns.

Well, not me; if I don’t like the horns, I roll my eyes and ignore them.

My parents have always told me I’m stubborn and will only walk my chosen path. It is both a blessing and a curse.

I am stubborn enough to stick to a choice once I have chosen, but what if it’s the wrong choice? I am learning to be wise enough to change my choice when life changes.

On most mornings, when it starts to rain before I even awake, I can feel it as I sleep. The pain weaves itself into my dreams and drags me from the clutches of a lover or the inside joke with a friend.

I dislike the feeling of pain pressing down on me so much that it takes all that I love and color it with the color grey.

There’s a type of despair that comes with being chronically ill. No one warned you about it; they just said to have a good support system. But I am prone to isolating myself with books and food.

Truthfully, if I could live in the woods with a lovely garden and a well-stocked library, I would be eternally happy. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.

But then, when the storm comes, there would be no one to ask for a cup of tea or a joke. Most of the pain I have does not respond to any medication well. I have to grind my teeth and bear it.

Just like this morning, the pain is present, and I am, writing in the middle of a rainstorm.

The funny thing is, a snowstorm does not do the same thing to me. I only have terrible flareups when a rainstorm floats across the state, and that is very often in the later part of the year.

Perhaps, I should move to a place where there is plenty of snow.

Yes, maybe that would solve the problem. Or at least one of them.