Morning Person: By Habit or By Nature? by Alex

Morning Person: By Habit or By Nature? by Alex - January 2019 Scholarship Essay

I am a woman of habit. I relish in concrete plans and consistent schedules. When I was little I always remember waking up naturally at 7:00am. Every Saturday morning my brother and I would watch the 7:00am PBS cartoons. Once I hit middle school I woke up at 6:30am and then in high school it was 6:00am. Even on weekends, with no alarm, sleeping in would mean waking up at a solid 8:00am. Every morning I would get up, go next door to wake my brother up, and then make my way to the kitchen to make scrambled eggs. After getting ready I would drive us to seminary (a scripture study class for high schoolers). Seminary started at 7:00am, and we were on the road by 6:45am. After seminary I drove my brother to school and then drove myself to my dance studio.

I was home schooled starting in 8th grade and going through high school so that I would have more hours in the day to dance and train. I did my school work online, most of the time while sitting on the floor of the studio. It was around 8:30am by the time I got to the studio every morning and I would immediately start my studies, trying to get as much done as possible before my first dance class of the day at 11:00am. I would always start with my math lesson. I figured, get the most strenuous class, the one I cared about the most, out of the way while my mind is still fresh and focused. My ballet class would go from 11:00am to 1:00pm and then I’d have more starting at 4:00 or 5:00pm that night, depending on the day. Remember how I said my productive hours tapped off at about 1:00pm? Well, that’s because that’s when ballet ended. The few hours between ballet class 1 and ballet class 2-3 were always the hardest to focus; probably because one, I was tried from class, and two, I was distracted because of class. It’s similar to how kids have a hard time focusing right when they come back in from running around at recess. I’d leave the studio at 8:00pm and drive home to eat, shower, and go straight to bed. My body and mind were always too tired to do much else.

That was my life for 5 years straight. I was always in a constant race against the clock, desperate to fit everything I needed to get done in a short amount of time. When you only have around 3 or 4 hours a day to do 7 credits worth of high school classes, you learn to manage your time very well. This meant I figured out when and where I could focus the most and that procrastination of any kind would be the death of me.

I guess you could say that I made myself become a morning person because my schedule demanded it. Based on this argument, some might venture to say that no one is really a “morning person” or a “night owl” by nature; we form these perspectives and opinions of time through our habits. While there is truth to this, I do just naturally like the mornings. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Oregon and I love the summer. Summer mornings in Oregon are the best. Those hours where it’s not too hot yet and the sky in the clearest blue you’ve ever seen. The birds are chirping and if it's before fire season, the trees are a magnificent green. I always get up before anyone in my house does, so maybe I just enjoy the quiet. I probably also like the mornings because I always go to bed early, thus I never feel groggy at 7:00am. My mind in the morning feels clear and calm as the blue sky outside my window. There’s something beautiful about the beginning of a new day. There is potential in the air, hope that that day is going to be great. So maybe I like the beauty, or the quiet, or just getting stuff done. Maybe it’s all just a big habit. Regardless, if you call me at 10:30pm, I’ll be dead asleep; if you want me at 7:00am though, I’ll be ready to go.