Glorious Incandescence by Christopher

Glorious Incandescence by Christopher - January 2019 Scholarship Essay

As the foreign light disrupted the tranquil darkness, I groggily attempted to dispel the unwelcome radiance with a wave of my hand. My head burrowed deeper into the surrounding warm sheets. Alas, I could feel the judgmental glow of midday even through the solace of my bedding. My efforts were futile as the fatal blow had already been dealt—there was no falling back asleep anytime soon. I reluctantly hoisted myself upright and searched for my alarm clock. It was past noon and I still hadn’t even started the paper that was due the next day.

The preceding recount describes my general experience with staying up late and being slow to rise. I find that my productivity takes a nosedive when I don't get ample rest, which typically occurs when staying up late due to the world not accommodating my every whim (the audacity!). Subsequently, I would consider myself more of a morning person than a night owl. I do concede, however, that once I gain momentum, it’s hard to justify quelling my potential productivity. Although, I still find the scale to tip in favor of waking up early in the end.

The momentum that comes from waking up early is one of the reasons I’d say that I am a morning person. When I wake up, I have the entire day ahead of me, which, quite frankly, gives me the motivation to do the stuff that I’d rather not be doing. What’s more, potential distractions, such as technology, have been flushed from my mind in a way, so I am more focused. Since it is easier for me to avoid distractions, it’s easier to “get the ball rolling” and be productive. Some people may argue that momentum is one of their reasons for being a night owl. To that I say, good point. I believe that it is a shared commonality between the two camps. Whichever type of person you are might just boil down to whether you find “momentum” and energy in the evening or morning.

The second reason I’d say that I am a morning person is that I find it difficult to relax when I know that I still have things to do. This mental framework is both a blessing and a curse—a blessing in that it means that I find it quite difficult to procrastinate and a curse in that I find it sometimes difficult to have fun, even when doing so could be justified. Thus, when I, for example, have a paper due in a week, I find that I can’t just have fun in the morning and worry about it later—it’s something that I “just gotta” do now (which would be when I first wake up).

Lastly, I’m a morning person due to finding energy from waking up earlier rather than later. With a sizable nine hours under my belt, I feel energized to complete whatever tasks I have to do throughout the day. This relates back to my first point of motivation; without an adequate level of energy, I’m not going to feel motivated whatsoever to achieve my goals and get stuff done. My circadian rhythm is set up right now that if I don’t get that beauty sleep of nine hours, I’ll be a groggy mess in the morning. Plus, I find that if I don’t ascend at the same time as the sun, I’ve somehow wasted the modicum of time I left in this world. Yes, as you might imagine, I can get somewhat melodramatic and irrational without enough sleep.

To summarize, me being a morning person simplifies down to being subservient to my biology (how dramatic!). I find that waking up with the sun motivates and energizes me to tackle the mundanities of everyday life. And beyond energy and motivation, the incandescence of the morning also plays a role in my self-discipline and inability to procrastinate. All in all, not a bad problem to have.