Quiet Mornings

I've always grown up by spending the mornings by myself. My mom left for work at 5:30 every day and my dad, who worked out of the house, would normally be at the health club or out at starbucks during my morning hours. By elementary school I was used to waking myself up in the morning, making breakfast, watching TV, and then getting myself out to the bus ontime. I even managed to wake up before my sister when she lived at home -just before I would sneak into her room turn on her closet light and ask her what I should wear.

Now, twenty years later, I'm still the first person up in our apartment. I flick on the lights in the morning and tell the house it's time to wake up. I cook my breakfast in silence or put on a few melodies in my bedroom while I'm getting ready. A sweet silent peace sits on the house when you're the only one up. It's my time in the day to have the entire home to myself, to focus only on myself, and let my heart waken up again.

To all my friends and peers in college who gawk and ask why I wake up at 6:30- this is why. I simply love my mornings to myself.