Anyone that knows me knows that I am chronically early anywhere I go. I am always the first one to arrive anywhere, and if I’m not, then chances are I was just waiting in my car until I knew I wouldn’t be the first one inside.

I would rather be an hour early than a minute late. Yes, that is totally ridiculous, especially when it comes to things like going to class or just meeting someone for a casual dinner. I get extremely antsy when I don’t give myself a huge gap of time to get somewhere, and I spend the majority of my day waiting. I’ve learned to enjoy waiting, mostly because it puts me at ease because I know I’m not late, but waiting around has given me a large amount of knowledge about other people, as well as myself. Here are some of the things that only chronically early people like myself can understand.

1. Being on time is being late.

2. Being an hour early is better than being a minute late.

3. Everyone else is always late.

4. Waking up in the morning isn’t an issue because you have four alarms, that you triple check the night before.

5. You spend the majority of the day waiting for other people.

6. You’ve learned to bring a book or other task with you to help kill time.

7. You wait in your car until you see other people because you try not to be the first one inside.

8. You basically have the whole movie theater to yourself for a good 20 minutes at least.

9. Leaving slightly later than your usual time will give you extreme anxiety.

10. Having friends and family members that might make you late somewhere is the absolute worst.

11. You spend your time waiting having an internal conflict of whether to continuously text your friends asking how far away they are or just sitting back and trying to act cool.

12. No one seems to understand just how much being late means to you.