Waking up in the morning is only hard for me when I have to go to work after. On the weekends, I can pop out of bed at 7:30am with no interest in falling back asleep. However, come Monday morning I will stay in bed as long as possible. If that means I won’t have time to shower then so be it. I won’t shower. If that means I won’t have time to go to the gym then fine. Even if I know I will be at work really late, I will skip my morning exercise. Sleep is just way more important.
In college, waking up was never easy either. However, after you woke up you knew not much work would be involved in getting ready. You could wear rags to class with no make up and your hair up and look decent. You could go to class straight from the gym in sneakers and feel normal. But when going to work you have to look good. You have to look normal. You most likely have a dress code you have to abide by, so you have to actually put effort into getting dressed each morning. Not to mention you have to impress coworkers, clients, etc… You never know what’s going to happen each day at work!
I think my love affair with the snooze button during the work week is due to myself avoiding the realization that it’s actually happening – I actually have to be at work in an hour or two. As I said, I’m fine waking up on the weekends AKA when I’m in control of my day… but if the control is in the hands of someone else, let me sleep. It’s kind of like my fear of flying… I hate not being in control. If I could control my work hours that would be great. I mean, sorry I couldn’t graduate and immediately become a freelancer who picks her own hours and works when she wants. That’s not how it is for us post-grads. Especially me. I sometimes have to go in at 4:30am… and other times at 11am. One would think if I can manage getting to work at the crack of dawn I would be able to wake up and conquer the world before getting to work at 11am. But no. That’s the not the case. I will sleep until the appeal of hitting the snooze button wears off. Which leaves not much time to work out (at most an hour if I’m feeling ambitious) and a limited time to get ready. I’m always in a rush… but only when work is involved.
You can tell me I’m going to the beach. I’ll wake up at the crack of dawn, maybe get a workout in, and be on the road at or before 9. You can tell me I’m doing NOTHING and I’ll wake up, watch some TV, run errands, and maybe even go to brunch. You can tell me I’m going to Disney World and I won’t even sleep. I’ll just be up all night meaning I won’t even need to wake up the next morning. But tell me I have to wake up for work – even if it’s the middle of the day and I’m going in late – and I will sleep until the last second possible.
The reason we, post-grads, burn waking up for work is because we ‘don’t get enough sleep.’ In college, we could go out the night before, black out, get an hour of sleep, wake up in our clothes from the night before, and still somehow manage to complete the busy day ahead of us. We went to class, the gym, and did it all again that night. We were giant balls of energy… but after graduation, we burst. And now we are giant balls of laziness who get so tired from 8+ hours of work (lame) that we can’t even manage to do anything except sit in bed, stalk people on Facebook, and watch TV at night. It’s pathetic. We’re pathetic. But it’s only because we have to wake up for work. I sleep more than I ever did before as a post-grad, but it doesn’t matter. Either I’m getting old… or waking up for work is the worst thing ever. And I truly believe waking up for work is the worst thing ever (AKA I’m not old).
1 Comment
This is, by far, my favorite thing I’ve read so far on this blog! It’s all so true — especially since I’m sitting here reading it instead of getting out of bed and ready for work.