I never thought I'd be able to do it, but college turned me into a night owl. I know, it doesn't seem possible. But for the past two weeks I've gone to bed no earlier than eleven (and that was once! Most of the time, its much later).
Now, for someone to fully comprehend how drastic a change of lifestyle this, they must first understand my family. My grandfather wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to ride his bike for anywhere between 60 to 120 miles each day, and then does crunches. He goes to sleep early, around nine. My grandmother arises at six am each morning and goes to bed around the same time as my grandpa. Everyone likes to tell the story about how my aunt would go over her friend's houses when she was a teenager and call my grandparents to come get her in the morning because all her friends were asleep. My mom wakes up early and stays up late. Whats more, it's not just that we don't sleep. Even when we manage to drift off into something that resembles sleep, we are restless and awoken by the sound of an alarm going off in a room down the hall (that would be me).
Naturally, this inability to sleep makes my family members and I very protective over what sleep we can get. My stepdad teased me for weeks before my departure for college, convinced I'd be begging to come back, just so I could sleep in my own bed again. I admit I was skeptical as to how I'd be able to sleep, but somehow, it happened. I got used to the sound of the water constantly moving through the pipes, the cacophony of teenage boys living right next to you, the guitar music floating across the hall, and of course the occasional college breakdowns. All of it eventually blends into a sound that is more like white noise than bothersome noises that keep you up at night.
Needless to say though, this whole staying up until 2 am, just talking to people, wandering around campus, shivering in the new fall weather....While it may give me bags under my eyes, I like it a whole lot better than sleeping.
Until next time...
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