By my daughter – Zelia
For the past few years, I usually wake up between 5:40-6:30 a.m. but my schedule fluctuates. [me: hitting the snooze button 5 times in a roll. Alarm clock with an annoying face: am I a joke to you?] More often, I ask myself if it really is worth waking up in the morning. What if I could sleep the whole day.
Looking back, I realize that I usually have a compelling reason to get up. For instance, I had to wake up at 4:45 on the 1st of December because I participated in the Macao International Marathon. And sometimes, it could be for a good reason – getting up to open presents on boxing day. Or a pretty bad reason – not doing Chemistry or English homework until the morning of the submission day.
Therefore, I gave myself a decent reason to rise in the early morning. As I am an ambitious person, I know my morning routine will consist of habits and routines that may help me make progress on long-term goals. On the first day of this month, I planned to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and promised myself to study SAT Reasoning reading passages and do at least 30 questions. Then I can do whatever sports or workout I want to play before going to school at 7:30 a.m.
My alarm went off a mere 40 minutes earlier than normal, but I had to drag myself out of bed. Is 5:00 a.m. the time I’d normally choose to wake up? Heck no – but the enjoyment I get from running or walking my dog overrides any urge to sleep later.
PS: Some of my friends participated in the MORNING RISE CHALLENGE as well so we took advantage of the extra morning time we created to do some HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training) workout and went to ride the newly built Light Rail Transit (LRT).
