How Tuesdays With Morrie Made Me a Morning Person…Sort Of

“When you’re in bed, you’re dead.” ~Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays With Morrie

The alarm clock blares, and my brain shutters. It CANNOT possibly be morning. Glancing at the clock, I realize with sad certainty that it is, in fact, 6:00AM.

I am not a morning person–at all. I hate the sluggish feeling of getting up before sunrise. No matter how much sleep I get the night before, 6am is not a good time of day. Sixteen cups of coffee couldn’t make me feel awake, alive, or refreshed in the morning.

This is quite the problem since I’m a high school teacher. My favorite thing about summer? Sleeping in, of course.

Lately, the mornings have been getting harder and harder. We’ve been in school for a marking period now, and I can barely make myself get out of bed these days. This is further evidenced by the declining quality of my hair and makeup. First day of school=perfect curls and five-step eye shadow. These days, some version of a disheveled bun and one swipe of a single color of eye shadow is the only beauty routine I can manage.

So what keeps me going? What keeps me trudging into school every morning, headache and sleepy eyes in tow?

The quote above.

Seriously.

This is not the most impactful quote from Tuesdays with Morrie, not even close. But for some reason, this quote has stuck with me. I literally find myself internally chanting it every morning when I’m staring at myself in the mirror and just wanting to climb back under the covers.

If you’re not in the world contributing something, what’s the point? Sleep is nice. Sleep is wonderful. But sleep does not equate to a fulfilled life.

So I stomp forward into the day. The sun isn’t always shining at 6am. My eye shadow isn’t always envy-worthy, and I may forget what day it is sometimes. But 6am, I’m going to own you, like it or not.

Because I’m not dead yet. I’ve still got a lot to accomplish.

Now I’m off to bed.

6 am comes quickly.