A ray of sunshine infiltrates your window and pokes you in the face.
Wakey wakey! Mother nature’s calling to you. Time to be a PERSON! Yay!!
Personing? Nope. You’re thinking to yourself as you pull your covers over your face, hiding from the dastardly sunshine who dares disturb your slumber.
Nah. Niet. Nope Nope. Let’s try again tomorrow.
As you continue wrapping yourself into your burrito blanket fortress of solitude and safety, you ignore the little guilty birdy in your brain that’s telling you to get up and go do things.
Things? Ugh.
Oh yeah. Things. I have all the things to do.
But.. burrito.
You obviously choose the burrito, and begin your attempt to drift back into your peaceful dreamland where personing is tomorrow’s plan.
Minutes pass; you’ve successfully remained in the darkness despite nature’s adversity. You’re winning. Hell yeah. But damn it’s hot in your burrito.
Curses! You resentfully think to yourself.
You haven’t won yet. The sunshine’s attacking your defense. Your fortress is under siege of the sun’s heat. You’re sweating and you hate sweating. Damnit the sunshine knows your weakness.
You try to withstand the discomfort. You even try to convince yourself you like it. It’s like you’re purposely placing yourself into a burrito sauna that’s sweating your toxins out, yeah.
Eventually you stick one of your feet outside of the fortress to feel some sort of relief that you’ve been neglecting to admit a necessity for. You immediately regret your decline in defense, because as soon as your blanket lifts ever so slightly, the patient sunshine on tomorrow’s side of the world swooshes into your eyes at full force.
The light’s intensity startles you and you almost hiss in reaction. You pull the blanket back down as quickly as you can and you lay still for a few moments, contemplating your next move. You decide to try and sleep once more, now that you’ve proven your dedication to the cause.
More minutes pass; you’ve tossed and you’ve turned, you’ve counted a couple of sheep, you’ve groaned and have shifted your pillow in circles, and now you’ve finally admitted to yourself that you’re not going to fall back asleep. As you’ve been battling this unwelcome restlessness, that guilty birdy from before has kept chirping along in your mind, complaining about how boring the back of your eyelids are to look at.
You allow yourself to contemplate the meaning of life for a few more moments. When your last mental note detailing your internal existential crisis is carefully placed back into its folder, you take a deep breath and kick your blanket up, releasing yourself from the burrito.
You sit up and you have to shield your eyes for the first few moments of exposure.
The light - it burns. Back foul beast, BACK.
You give your pupils a little bit of time to adjust to their surroundings. You rub your eyes, trying to get them to hurry up.
When you finally can see the world without squinting, you move to sit on the edge of your bed and place your feet on the ground.
It is time.
The little birdy whispers in your mind, nudging you to stand up and go do all of the things.
Oh please, say it ain’t so.
You plead with reality, look back to your torn up fortress that you just abandoned, and feel a deep cringe in your heart.
But it was so safe in my blanket burrito.
Tomorrow’s still tomorrow in my burrito. Today doesn’t have to be today in my burrito.
Your heart sings a sad song, and you take a deep breath, soaking in your farewells.
Today I have to be a person. You think to yourself as you rise up.
When you’re finally standing, you walk to your mirror and look at yourself in the eyes.
All of the things today, buddy. You got it? Alllllllll of the things.
You nod and agree with yourself.
About an hour passes. You’ve gotten dressed, have eaten breakfast, and now you’re slinging your bag over your shoulder, getting ready to venture out into the world where things have to be done.
As you’re stepping out of the door, you pause as you feel your bed call to you, begging you to stay.
You smile and reassure yourself that your burrito will still be here when you return.
You know that deciding to be a person today will make saying goodbyes like this a little bit easier tomorrow.
