Carly Risom
Web and Social Media Director
@CRisomCourant
With Christmas break and the ability to sleep until 11 am now over, we find ourselves returning to the formidable pattern of getting out the door each morning. Here, I attempt to recap the six stages of the morning, Monday through Friday, August through June. Wow. College should be good.
1. Waking up
Usually my thought process is as follows: I can’t get up, this is the worst day ever.
The morning is especially worse if there isn’t a sunrise, which means there will be significantly less Snap stories to watch in physics.
Therefore, waking up at 6:50 (I live in an unfortunately close proximity to the high school) is hands down the worst part of my day. This is partially because I usually feel like I have just been hit by a large vehicle the second my feet touch the floor, due to the fact that I went to bed so late.
2. Hating yourself for how late you went to bed the night before
I’m going to go to bed at like, 10 tonight. I’ll finish all my work and be in bed by 10.
This is what I think to myself while I’m getting dressed and sprinting down the stairs to eat breakfast. The other day I ran down the stairs so fast that I tripped, and almost pulled the railing out of the wall. My mom thought that someone was trying to break into the house. Time stamp: 6:59 a.m. <3
3. Trying to eat breakfast/going through the day in your head
Every morning I nearly choke on my bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats while trying to remember if I have a Spanish quiz that day or not.
I usually have a Spanish quiz, and it’s most likely first period. Before my mom reminds me that I’m lucky to be getting an education and I yell at tell her that I don’t feel lucky, I try to find my shoes/coat/backpack. I then end up actually yelling at her.
4. Fighting with your parents and then being late
Me: “No mom, I don’t need a hat” Her: “What if your car breaks down”
I lose at least 3 minutes every morning fighting this battle. Maybe I wouldn’t have contracted the same illness three times in the same semester if I had actually listened to my parents. If I’m lucky, however, my twin sister will drive for me and I can take advantage of the seat warmers in our car. This happens about as often as Kim K changes a man, though. Every now and then, but not all the time.
5. Speeding to school
As I write this, I realize that I am lucky to be alive. There is a particularly precarious turn between two roads on the way to school, as well as some potholes. What makes things even better is that my parents decided to buy a house on the border of Darien and New Canaan. This means that the Darien roads I unfortunately have to frequent are never plowed and filled with potholes. They may have boat days, but we have paved roads. Moreover, somebody’s forsythia bush on Conrad road protrudes outwards into the street, which means that I can never see whether or not I’m going to hit someone coming the other way.
On the backroads, you can usually try to make up for lost time, granted that you dodge the three dog walkers and occasional runner outfitted in entirely black. If I can get past Saxe by 7:24 a.m. it’s going to be a good day. It will also be a good day if a “Phone Tap” is on Z100. (If you haven’t listened to one, you’re doing yourself a disservice. One time a girl tricked her dad that she was buying a $30,000 wedding dress. I’m pretty sure he almost went into cardiac arrest. He clearly doesn’t know that a Vera Wang is priceless.)
Photo: Links Service
6. Getting into your seat by 7:3(3)
The intersection between the high school, South Ave, and Saxe is your worst enemy. The road I take happens to be the same one that feeds out of the Merritt. This means that I, and everyone else on South Ave, is subject to getting stuck behind their old AmStud teacher, or if it’s a particularly awesome Tuesday, their ceramics teacher who told them that their final project exploded in the kiln freshman year. This gives you the perfect opportunity to yell at them when they make you miss a green. If you find yourself at this particular conjuncture, you understand the importance of a green arrow. Some may say that this is type of happenstance is “on fleek.” I say, yes, a green arrow is “on fleek.” You also value the man who controls the traffic on the corner of Farm and South. Whether or not you actually are on time, however, is entirely contingent upon whether or not the “traffic controller” in between the high school and South elementary lets you go or makes you wait. Fall and spring, he makes me wait. Winter, he lets me go first. I pick my battles.
Moral of the story: Go to bed early, get up even earlier. In other words, you will never win.
