I occasionally suffer bouts of insomnia. I lie in bed at night, keeping myself awake by wishing I were asleep. It's quite painful, really. But lately, I don't even try to go to sleep. I just stay up until the wee hours of the morning because the night time is so much fun. I love staying up late and I love sleeping in the next day. And now it's a sleeping habit that I can't break. And a habit that some consider lazy, others consider weird, and I just consider different.For two years I taught and conducted high school choir. They were two of the most challenging years of my life. I learned more about myself and this world than I ever have. I learned that there are many different ways to do something right. That different paths can lead to the same desired goal, and you get to think and create and pick your path as you go. And no one can tell you that it's the wrong one, because it only matters that the path you've created for achieving your goal works. There's not a right way to life, really.
But the most important thing I learned from teaching high school choir is that waking up in the 5's almost every day of the week is horrid and should be illegal. No one should have to wake up at 5 AM or 5:30 AM or 5:55 AM. I now make it a point to never wake up in the 5's no matter what. And if for some strange reason I have to, then I am in a horrid mood and don't talk to me. Thankfully, even in my most busy work seasons since teaching, I have been spared from rolling over in the morning and seeing a bright red 5 staring back at my face. Glorious.
8 comments:
I hate waking up at 5 am too, I am a night owl.
I needed to hear that middle paragraph today, thank you. I agree with you completely. I do things differently generally, yet then find myself worrying if it was right, just because it's different, for some reason it's easy to forget that different doesen't always equal wrong.
Exactly.
I do the same thing - worrying if some way is right. When I taught, I started noticing that I worried if this or that approach I was taking to lead my choir into success was correct. But when it came down to concert or competition time, it only mattered that my approach worked, and that I taught them something along the way so that growth occurred.
Different pieces and seasons of the year required different approaches. It was freeing when I realized that the teaching process was dynamic, full of change, and creative.
I think the same can be said for life.
Any idea why we are so worried about this?
I'm a morning person, but 5 is a wee bit early for me, too. I used to have to get up that early to work at the post office. Now I just wake up when the 5 alarm goes off for hubby and then roll back over and sleep a while.
Of course, you know that when you stay up until 2 am and then sleep in until 11 you're simply getting to bed at the reasonable hour of 9 pm and getting up at 6 am ... in Honolulu.
You're not odd at all, just living in the wrong time zone!
WAIT A MINUTE!!!
I just noticed the middle paragraph!
Not a right way to live? Balderdash! Of course there's a right way to live (and a wrong way to go with it).
But, alas... it's my bed time now so I'll have to write more later. I get up at 5am you know. :-)
I wouldn't mind living in the Honolulu time zone!
I think I know where you're going with the living right thing, Rob, but I'm gonna wait to let you finish your thought.
As for having to wake up at 5 AM, I'm truly sorry. I hope your Saturdays are good to you.
I've always been a hardcore night owl. I used to think (well, not that I really believed it, but it seemed like) that at night, my thoughts were much clearer, because there wasn't as much interference from the brainwaves of most of the rest of the people, since they were asleep. Or something like that.
Now I work in a home office, so I can stay up a little later than most people (Midnight or later, and still get plenty of sleep) and my commute time is about thirty seconds, so I can report to work unshaven and raggedly dressed.
I agree about the 5's. Way too early, I usually feel tired and headachy all day when I have to get up that early.
C Ham, you're crackin me up about the brainwaves. But I'm with you about the thoughts being clearer at night.
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