We’ve all been there.
You’re laying in your warm comfortable bed getting a much needed few hours of rest before you start the grind all over again. All is right in the world. Then, suddenly, a sound worse than the grating symphony of tens of thousands of vuvuzelas; your alarm clock. You smash the snooze button, rollover for another nine minutes, smash the snooze button again and repeat this process until you glance over and realize your first class starts in 10 minutes.
This used to be me. Recently, I accepted an internship that requires me to wake up at 5:30 a.m. three times a week. In a strange turn of events, I’ve found myself waking up around that time even when I don’t have to — and it’s fantastic. I never thought I would say this, but I believe I’ve turned into a morning person.
There really is a lot to be said about waking up a few hours before your first class. I’ll often find myself waking up early to study and finish my homework for the day. While some would say this is merely an extension of my terrible procrastination habit, I disagree. Personally, I know I function much better at the start of the day rather than at 8 or 9 at night. And after you get past the initial “oh god it’s dark outside why am I conscious?” phase and pour yourself a cup of coffee, you realize that it’s not so bad after all.
In fact, it’s pretty great. I used to rarely eat breakfast, instead opting for that oh-so-precious 15 minutes of extra sleep. Now, after getting out of the shower and firing up my faithful coffee maker, I scramble a few eggs, make some toast, maybe watch an episode of original Pokemon on Netflix and start getting ready for the day.
However, as I quickly found out after several coffee and Red Bull fueled days, you can’t stay up until 3 a.m. if you’re trying to be productive at the brink of dawn. And since we’re in college, going to bed at 10 p.m. doesn’t exactly lead to a blooming social life. This is perhaps the biggest reason why the fabled “Morning Person” is a hard find at this point in our lives.
It all comes down to maintaining a balanced schedule. If you think you don’t have enough time in your day, sit down and actually try planning it out; chances are you have a lot more than you think. The morning is a valuable resource that few students take advantage of. This doesn’t mean that you have to go to bed at 9 p.m. and wake up at 4:30 a.m., but waking up even one hour earlier can do wonders for the rest of your day.
Starting the day alert and prepared as opposed to the “I was unconscious 15 minutes ago” look just feels good. You’re more confident, more energetic and it fools people into thinking that you actually have your life together.
And I’ll be honest, I don’t do this every day; there still are nights where I’m up studying or hanging out with friends until 2 a.m., I still pull all-nighters when I realize that paper that was assigned a month ago is due tomorrow and I still sleep in on the weekends (from staying out studying all night, of course). But now, instead of dreading my mornings, I look forward to them.
Kevin Ridder is a senior in environmental studies. He can be tweeted at @redinthehead99 or emailed at [email protected].
