This is what it feels like to be a morning person

One of my favorite parts of the day begins at 5:15 a.m. That’s when I like to wake up.

After feeding my cats and speeding through my scientifically cultivated morning routine, I grab my laptop and head out the door, still not completely removed from the night’s dream state.

Usually, I head to my favorite coffee shop to return emails and get a head start on my workday. The baristas know me well at this point. I also recognize the same customers who are also at the coffeeshop on most days. The construction worker who always orders a matcha latte. The Bible study that meets in the back room. The retired couple that has inadvertently become my source of sports news. The morning community is like a secret society that slowly becomes less secret as the sun comes up. Everyone’s invited, but gradually, in time with the arrival of the day.

On this particular day, I consciously acknowledged, after some mental wrestling, that I liked the darkness of the morning. I noticed I had a fondness for Daylight Savings time. I appreciate the time before any streaks of sun have dared to appear. The winds are calm. The moon is still out. When you walk out into the stillness and then into your car, you can feel the newness in the air like an untouched canvas, an undisturbed river.

The only time I don’t appreciate the darkness is in the warmer months, when I want to get outside and run, and I like the sun to light my path and make the running track less eerie. Today, I saw a lone, brave runner out on the roads at 6 a.m., and I wondered when I would be able to join in. I looked on wistfully. Before checking my emails, I Googled a chart of sunrise times for my location and month. I had just decided I loved the morning darkness, but I also wanted to run.

Then, in a twist of serendipity, when I sat in my classic spot in the “garden room” part of the cafe, a group of college students sat down to study at a nearby table.

“I get so depressed when it’s dark outside in the morning,” one of them said, as if chiming in with my internal dialogue from moments before.

“Yeah, I was driving here and so sad that the sun wasn’t up yet. It’s scary,” another added.

The crazy thing is, before my reflection this very morning, I just might have agreed.

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