It's okay to like the rain because of how softly it rolls down the window on the way home from work, when in such a race to make it back to home base, the world actually slows down for a bit, so that before crossing the finish line, the rats can bask in the sun for a bit and look back at the smoke sifting out of the tall concrete trees dotting the horizon.
It's okay to not like the rain at all.
It's okay to smile with all your teeth, showing off that thousand-dollar smile your seventh gradeself hated so much, so you smiled as if your lips were sewn shut, stretching across your chin almost unnoticeably.
It's okay to not smile at all sometimes.
It's okay to be afraid of dogs, with their barks so booming and loud and reminding you of that one time you were bit by one as a kid, chaos erupting as the entirety of the block party seemed to rush to you with Band-Aids and gauze and Neosporin and all other kinds of things you didn't need.
It's okay to love dogs as if they were your own children.
It's okay to not like any of the songs on the radio, to think that they all sound the same no matter how many times you change the station, with their abundance of beat drops and overtly auto-tuned vocalists littered with lyrics that make you want to quit your day job and somehow save the music industry.
It's okay to yell every word of "Gucci Gang" with your friends at the top of your lungs, the windows down for all the suburban world to hear.
It's okay to order that shiny slice of cheese pizza instead of a Caesar salad, and then drift into food-induced slumber after a long day instead of trying to run three miles, and it's okay to do exactly the opposite.
It's okay to curl up under your blankets and ignore your ever-buzzing phone on a Friday night, to just let the week wash over you like a wave of all that you did (and perhaps all you could've done), and it's okay to go and "paint the town red" with the people who blow your phone up every weekend.
It's okay to cry, and it's okay to laugh. It's okay to do everything, and it's okay to do nothing.
What's not okay is to try and be someone you're not.
