At Illinois State, I am studying for my degree in elementary education to become a teacher. As a senior, in my last semester at Illinois State, I am a student teacher in a school with second graders every day to fulfill my graduation requirements. Since I am student teaching in a town 40 minutes away from Illinois State, I have to leave a little early every morning to make it to my school on time.
As many people know, I always get up early, even on weekends. I enjoy waking up before everyone else to have some downtime while I slowly wake up. Last semester, I woke up at 7 a.m. every day, but now I leave around 7 a.m. for school, so I wake up at 5 a.m. now. I have always been a morning person, but I am also a night owl too. These two do not work well together. I enjoy waking up early in the morning even if I don’t have anything to do because I love being the first one awake. I enjoy the silence that the early dawn brings when everything is slow and still. It gives me a chance to wake up on my own terms and keep in control. When I feel rushed in the morning, I get irritated. This is the reason why I wake up two hours before I have to leave for my 45-minute drive to school.
You might think that it is absolutely insane that I wake up so early, but as I said, I enjoy having time to myself in the morning.
Pros
More Productive
I don’t know if it is just me, but I feel more productive in the morning than at night. To be honest, after a long day of teaching, I am not really in the mood to clean anything. I would much rather get everything done in the morning to come home later to a clean area.
Days feel longer
When you wake up earlier, you feel as though there are more hours in a day because it takes five hours to become noon. I feel more productive and complete when a lot of my stuff is done for the day before noon. I feel as though afternoon, the day goes by quicker, and eventually, it’s 7 p.m. and you have to start unwinding for the day.
Watching the sunrise
Nothing beats being able to see the sunrise or set. The colors that the sky brings when the sun is rising or setting are absolutely beautiful. It gives us a moment to pause and reflect on how amazing our world is.
Cons
Tired earlier
This can be a pro or a con depending on the way you look at it. After school, I go straight to work and do not get home until 9:15 p.m. which makes for very long days and not a lot of time to myself at night. I have noticed that this past year, I have struggled with getting quality sleep at night. I am always waking up multiple times throughout the night. I do think that becoming tired earlier in the night can be a pro or con because, for me, I need to become tired earlier in order to get quality sleep since I have to start unwinding earlier than usual.
You wake up before the sun
This, again, can be a pro or con. As much as I enjoy waking up and being able to watch the sunrise as I start to gain motivation for the day, it does feel heartbreaking waking up in what feels like the middle of the night. Sunshine makes me wake up in a better mood. I think the combination of winter, coldness and the darkness that comes with it, is what makes it hard to wake up before the sun rises.
There are pros and cons to everything in life depending on the way you look at it. Not every day is going to be perfect as soon as you wake up. I often wake up at 5 a.m. and become in the worst mood because of it. It is all how you look at waking up early, or with anything you do in your life. A goal I have for 2022 is to wake up every day grateful that I was even able to have the opportunities that I have.
Lot’s of Love,
Jess <3