Sitting on top of my slightly scratchy blankets, I listen to the crickets that are awake as the world around me is asleep. I’m feeling jealous of the fact that my siblings are sleeping in at the moment, yet I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to a race that is just going to be cold, wet, and windy: the epitome of a miserable day. My bed feels more and more comfortable. I sit here, the mattress feeling as if I could just sink into it. Everything is still dark outside. I wish I was sleeping right now. My muscles are still sore from a grueling practice the previous morning. The muscles in my back feel so tight that it feels like some inhuman force is pressing down on my spine. The whir of my ceiling fan is usually just barely audible, but without any activity in the house except for me sitting here and writing, it’s loud and clear. My eyes feel so heavy right now. Do I really have to get up? Can’t I just sleep for a little bit longer? All of a sudden, my alarm goes off after having forgotten that I set about 5 alarms, knowing that I would hit “snooze” on all of them. So much for forethought. Looking around my room, everything seems to be a monotone black or grey. I’ve been up for a while, so I can see the outline of the lamp beside my head. The crickets are still wide awake outside my window, and I’m sure that the entire family is awake and not just one, like me. It’s so early that there aren’t even birds chirping outside yet. At least I have the blaring train across town to keep me company in the early hours. I’m sure that I have more alarms set on my phone this morning, so I’m going to try and go back to sleep. It’s way too early to be awake.