I have never been a morning person. I almost had to take a class at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays next semester and I cried about it. At 12:30 p.m. on any given Saturday or Sunday, you'll probably find me still in bed working up the energy to start my day- only to finally get up at the early hour of two in the afternoon. That being said, I got a job this summer at a bakery, and my whole perspective on waking up early has been flipped upside down.

As one might imagine, bakeries tend to open up early in the morning. If I had truly understood how early that was before I got hired I might not have taken the job, but that's beyond the point. My shift starts anywhere between 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Let me just say that again... SIX O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. That means to be a functioning human, I have to wake up at 5 a.m. to shower, get dressed, chug 2-10 cups of coffee, etc. Prior to having this job, a typical bedtime was around 5 a.m., so having to wake up at this time came as a shock to my system. Although this seemed like a negative at first, having this job has actually shown me a lot of surprising benefits of waking up early.

First and foremost, I've learned that when you wake up early, you actually get more done. Who knew right? Starting the day off at six means that I can work seven full hours and still get home before I might even be awake on a lazy summer day. I then still have the whole day ahead of me to do whatever I want. If you don't wake up until 11 or 12, then you miss out on so much. This is so important because I've realized that I am actually more motivated during the hours of the day than of the night. Definitely surprising, considering I've always labeled myself as someone who does her best work at two in the morning. Apparently, that's not the case.

I've also found that it really isn't that hard to become a morning person.

I think I've been stuck in my late-night ways for so long, it took having this job to jump-start a whole new routine for me. I used to think that you're either inherently a morning person or a night person. However, I think that every morning person's secret to waking up early is simply going to bed early. Sleep is important, and in order to take advantage of your mornings, feeling awake and energized it is crucial. As someone who loves sleep, I learned this the hard way. I'm still learning to balance waking up and going to bed early, and I don't know if I will be able to keep up with it once the school year starts. I am hopeful I can continue to a morning person in the future, as I can finally understand why so many people choose to wake up so early, and I deeply admire all the willpower that goes into maintaining this lifestyle.