by Jocelyn Ponce, co-author Aine Moriarty
This is your morning wake up call! No more sleeping in: it’s high school. Many students wake up at 5 to 5:30 a.m. For a freshman, like me, it takes some serious willpower! It’s definitely a transition. My co-author and I reached out to get opinions, and the truth behind just how freshmen are making the transition, from sleeping in later to rising early, sometimes earlier than the sun. While we met some interesting and enthusiastic students, almost all had this in common: they are still trying to adjust to the early time. Which also leads to the question: How do you pep yourself up in the morning?
When asking this question to a freshman, Raul De Nave, his response was “I splash really hot water on my face, it helps in waking me up.” This response for me was certainly interesting; hot water instead of cold. I would have never guessed! When I asked Raul how his routine differs from his morning schedule in middle school, his answer was, “I wake up four hours earlier than I used to.” Four hours earlier is definitely a large time difference. We explored the topic of making the morning switch some more, and found ourselves interviewing another freshman.
Flor Marquez is a freshman who is still adjusting to the big morning switch. We asked her opinion on waking up and rising earlier, she called it a struggle. When questioning how she energizes herself in the morning, she commented, “I take a shower to wake myself up in the morning.” While interviewing freshman we noticed there are so many ways to pep yourself up when it comes to making that switch.
Elizabeth Dominguez had a positive outlook when we interviewed her. We asked her for her opinion on the morning switch, she responded with, “It’s pretty hard but gets easier as it goes on.” A positive outlook sometimes is all you need when it comes to adjusting.
We also talked to Alicia Greenman to find out how she is adapting, her response was simple and honest: “Well… I am very tired in the morning. But by second period I feel awake.” We investigated further, questioning how she wakes up in the morning. Her reply was, “My alarm is loud, and the fan in my room makes it cold, so I’ll get up. Eating also helps to wake me up.” A cold room would probably give anyone a jump start in the morning!
We had investigated how freshmen pep themselves up in the morning, and their routine. We came to the conclusion that almost all of them are still trying to make the morning switch! But, everyone has their own unique way of waking themselves up, whether it’s hitting a blasting alarm a thousand times, getting some scorching water to the face, an icy room, or even blasting music…okay, not to the point where you wake up everyone sleeping, but loud enough to hype yourself up for the day to come!