For many students and teachers, many dread one thing on the night before the 1st day of school – setting and waking up for your 1st alarm. It is as if the final moments of Summer Vacation are fading away as I set that dreaded alarm, and waking up for it is no easier. Many screenagers my age stay up way late, and as a consequence of their scrolling habits wake up late, to nobody’s surprise. I myself am a pretty early riser, but the 1st morning of school always hits differently.
And just to be fully clear, what I say next is not satire.
Firstly, I’ve never really set myself an alarm time I’d know I’d use the next year. I always thought that if I could get myself fully ready before my bus would arrive, then I’d be good. Never once have I missed a bus, because I could always rush. And while I’d wake up early, this year, I finally got tired of rushing.
This is when getting up early starts to pay off.
I will not lie when I say this- I’ve never been a morning shower person. I’ve always thought that there are just better times of the day to do it. But when you get up early, you have one thing our later wake-up friends don’t have – extra time. Instead of getting up at 5:45 and having to drag yourself to get ready, get up at 5:15. Yes, I know it seems crazy, but that is what makes it all work for me.
Another important part is the alarm. That pesky little noise box or phone app is key. Make it as annoying loud and deafening as you possibly can. For me, it’s the NFL Sunday night FOX theme. Besides getting me pumped up from enjoying Sunday night football games and yelling at the TV, it’s also very loud and can jump-start a deep sleeper like a once-dead car battery. Once I’ve rolled out of bed, it gets easier from there.
Cold showers are objectively better if you want to wake up faster, but also freeze to death. Hot showers are more relaxing, but you run the risk of accidentally enjoying them (I don’t like hot showers, I like warm showers, just to be clear). My solution? How about both?
By using both warm and cold water (in that order) not only do you get to feel the nice warm water on your back, but the cold water can wake you up in an instant. Dry off and put your fit on.
When you do all this, you’ll notice something. You now have all this time. Since you rushed yourself to get up and shower quickly, you now have so much extra time to do whatever you please.
You can take a walk outside, scroll on your phone, reminisce on all the homework that you didn’t do, or even convince yourself to do the most daunting task any high schooler could do (check your email). The choice is yours and you get all this because you rushed yourself. Sometimes, rushing in life has benefits. People just go too slow to see them.
In all seriousness, we all wake up differently. I ran you through how I’ve been able to wake up earlier, but some like to do things last minute (rush it extra early and wait vs rush it all last minute).
Whichever one you do, just make sure not to set your alarm too late. Otherwise, it may go off on the bus or in the middle of class (it happened to me once – not very fun).
