Ninety-six seconds, that’s how long it takes a raindrop to fall. Down from that high up place falling down faster, and faster, whizzing by clouds and birds alike. Finally it comes down to earth, landing on the rim of my glasses. Its brothers and sisters fall down around it, leaving more and more trails down my plastic lenses obscuring my vision, causing me to wish glasses came with mini-windshield wipers. Those raindrops cause another thought to pop into my head. How long does it take a raindrop to fall?

A quick Google search later and I knew the answer lies at the beginning of this story. Ninety-six seconds, I thought to myself. Ninety-six seconds, and that little raindrop fell thousands of feet just to fall on me. What had I done in that 96 seconds since that raindrop began its journey? Not much, I’m afraid, just kinda stood there and looked up some stuff about raindrops. Even worse was all the stuff I could have done with that time: started that homework assignment, cleaned my room and all that other stuff my parents are always telling me to do. I soon felt the need to do something, anything to make myself more productive. I cleaned my room, did some homework and many other little things I needed to do. Before long, I found myself getting more and more frustrated with each thing I did. It took me a while, but I soon realized I simply needed a break. I took a minute, cleared my head and thought about that raindrop again. Now how do breaks and raindrops fit together? A little while later The Raindrop Rule was born.

The rule is simple; if I ever need a break, I take 96 seconds to stop, breathe and when that raindrop hits the ground, I too hit the ground running. This rule works great sometimes, but other times it just isn’t enough. Some breaks need to be longer than others and most, if not all, definitely have to be longer than 96 seconds. At the end of this raindrop realization, the one thing that became clear to me was that breaks are important. Some people might disagree, wanting work to be done dawn till dusk as they lead very busy lives. To them, I say everyone’s busy and no one out there doesn’t have at least 96 seconds to take a breath, relax and get ready to face the next thing on their plate. So remember to be like a raindrop and take those 96 seconds, or perhaps be like a snowflake and float around a little longer; whatever it may be, don’t forget to take a break.