A wandering mind by Rylee

A wandering mind by Rylee - January 2019 Scholarship Essay

I am the definition of a night owl, perhaps it’s because of my age, or my job, or something different all together, but I truly despise mornings. I like to stay up late in those precious, quiet hours, when everyone is sleeping and do quite the opposite. Whether I read or journal or even just play games on my phone. I thrive in the still hours before dawn, when it seems as though I am the only soul who dares to still be awake at that hopeless hour. I am more productive at night, possibly because of the desperation setting in, of having that essay due in only 4 more hours, but I believe that it is because night is when the mind wanders.
Usually when you’re trying to write the structured essays required in high school and college, people assume a wandering mind is a bad thing, but a wandering mind is open to possibilities. A wandering mind can change in an instant transforming into something you never thought was possible. A wandering mind lets you write what needs to be written, maybe not in perfect form but it lets you explore. I will often be found in the morning staring at that little blinking line on my computer, writing a sentence or maybe even two before sighing in frustration and deleting it all and staring at that blinking little line once more.
I’m a perfectionist, well at least I strive to be, I try so hard to write or do the perfect thing always, newsflash trying to be perfect is exhausting. On those nights though, in the cool quiet of my room my mind cares not about perfection only possibilities. This may make my writing wild and unpredictable at times but it is ever transforming and helps my writing take on a shape that merely is not possible in the hustle and bustle of early mornings.