Morning People
I’ve always been amazed at how many “morning people“ there are in this world. All of you know what I’m talking about – those early to bed, early to rise, high energy types who make the rest of us look bad. You know who you are. You’re the ones who request the 7:30 AM time slot for your doctor’s appointments, and you’re wrapping up your grocery shopping by 9 o’clock in the morning. If you are one of those, I’ll say this. I admire you, maybe even envy you, but I’ll never be one of you.
I’m sure you’ve been able to deduce by now that I am the full 180° opposite of a morning person. I love those evening hours. It’s nice and dark and quiet, and I can stream amazing programming or read to my heart’s content. I’m usually in bed a little after 11 pm, so I’m not a complete night owl, but I like to have plenty of time in the evening to relax, “chill out“ if you will.
I have recently come to realize that the “night owl“ syndrome is unusual in people my age, maybe all ages. When I joined a recreation center, I noticed that all of their classes were in the morning. When they finally added an afternoon class, I showed up and there was only one other person there. They canceled the class. This should not have come as a surprise to me. Almost everyone I know prefers to get all of their running around done in the morning and hang out at home in the afternoons. You won’t catch me doing that. I reverse that schedule and still get it all done.
If you’re reading this and thinking that this issue must have been a problem for me when I was working, you would be correct. When I first started my job, my time to report in was 8:15 AM. Not great, but I adjusted. Some years later it was changed to 8:45 AM. Even better. Then,THEN it became 7:35 AM. I was not happy. I had to adjust my bedtime. What shocked me about this was how many of my colleagues loved it because they could leave work earlier. Of course some of them snuck in a half hour late, but most showed up on time and were very pleased with the change. It was then that I realized morning people really did outnumber the rest of us night people.
So if you’re one of those many millions of morning people out there, consider yourself fortunate. I’m sure you’re making the most of your days and getting a lot done. And to all of you night people, my kindred spirits, carry on as you always have. Life after eight is great.