Early Bird's Song by Morgan

Early Bird's Song by Morgan - January 2019 Scholarship Essay

The sunlight crests over the tops of trees and works its way down to us mere mortals, to warm us for another day. I watch the scene unfold outside my kitchen window as I sleepily wait for my liquid electricity to materialize in the form of a dark liquid in my coffee mug. When the coffee machine finishes its magic I take my potion back up to my room, but softly. I expertly traverse the creaky step. Initially there is a flurry: emails to read, snapchats to open, and texts from when I was asleep to reply to. My night owl friends sometimes send their “goodnight” messages mere hours before I wake. The rest of my family is fast asleep, and will be for a few more hours. At my dorm it’s the same – the other girls take the mornings to recover from whatever happened the night prior, be it studying or partying.

Regardless of when I sleep, my body has its clock set to wake at 6 a.m. I’ve stayed up with friends until three-thirty, testing the laws of my internal clock, but somehow my body prevailed. No matter how tired I am, I cannot sleep in like everyone around me. Maybe it comes from my grandmother, who used to get up as early as five for her runs by the beach and early church masses. Maybe it originates in the years of waking up at six for high school, and then continuing to do so because I accidentally picked a major with constant 8 a.m. classes. I could ask a health professional to analyze this quirk, but why fix a good thing?

When I finally do settle, messages answered and emails read, I am left with nothing to do. Somehow these early hours aren’t the time to waste hours scrolling through social media – I reserve that bad habit for the evenings when I wait for dinner plans to roll around, or in quick bursts between study sessions. My options always come down to two things: do work, or exercise. Either choice is a productive start to the day. For the most part, I pick one just to procrastinate the other. If I have a daunting essay to write, I go for a run with music blasting in my earbuds to clear my head. If my body feels lazy and I can’t make myself get up, I stay put and power through my work.

There are times I want to sleep in, and sometimes I really should just for my own health. If I’m very sick or sleep deprived I will override my first waking at 6, and detain myself in bed until I fall back to sleep. And sometimes if I am in the middle of an exquisite dream (last night I dreamt I was in Disney World, after all), I just want is another five minutes to continue to live in that reality. But somehow my body knows what my head needs: a quiet time, alone with the sunrise, to get all of my thoughts in order and get things done.

I truly do my best work in the morning. Perhaps it is because none of my friends or family is awake to distract me. It also helps that the places I would go to be distracted – namely dining halls, student centers, and stores – are all closed. However, maybe there is something deeper in me that simply sparks in the morning. I am at peace when the world is aglow, the day is bright with possibilities, and I know that the simple steps I take towards productivity will make me feel better for hours to come. I can always take a break and clear my head later, but for now I have all the energy and power in the world, and I must let it out.