9/11

Zach Part 2

As a teenager I was often heard saying, "Getting out of bed in the morning is the hardest task of the day, the rest is a breeze." Like most teenagers, I stayed up doing homework way too late on school nights and woke up way too early for school. Getting out of bed really was the biggest struggle of my day, and usually things were easier throughout the rest of the day. Leaving the comfortable, warm bed sheets was always a difficult task, requiring tons of motivation and personal pep talks. Heck, for the amount of morning pep talks I've given myself, I should have gone into motivational speaking. 

Now, this isn't me being sarcastic, I was a kid who loved to sleep. Name a place and I was out like a light. On my minor league baseball team my reputation wasn't based on how well I could hit, run or even throw. Nope, they knew me as the guy who slept on the ride to every game. Whether I was carpooling with a teammate or riding with my brother, I was always asleep. So, getting up out of my bed after an unsatisfactory night of barely sleeping, it took a lot. 

Most parents or people of some authority will usually use those bullshit quotes on the youth. The one I heard a lot was that I needed to start living outside of my comfort zone. They obviously didn't realize that I did that every morning after I left my bed. 

Mentally I sighed to myself, oh adults. Why did I ever become one of those people? I vividly remember vowing to myself that when I grew up and got a real job that I would not allow myself to rise before the sun. 

All these memories came flooding back to me as I painfully tried to awake this morning, which felt just like one of those teenager days. My alarm went off an hour earlier than usual, since I had to be at work, prepping for the meeting I was going to run, an hour early. Gosh, how I have forgotten the pain to wake up. 

If I were back in my teenage days I would have just let my alarm keep buzzing, shove my face into my pillow, and groan to myself. Although those blissful days of sleep were glorious, they were long gone. So instead of imprinting my face into the pillow, I got up and shut my alarm, hoping not to wake my wife who slept so ever peacefully beside me. 

Trying my best not to disturb the rest of my family, I padded around my bedroom to retrieve my favourite three piece suit, since I must look my best to feel my best to run the meeting the best I can. I allowed myself an hour to shower, get dressed, and make my way to the office. This would give me about an hour and a half to prep before the meeting. 

My obsession with being early was especially prominent on important days like these, although that had not always been that way. I shook my head, reminiscing about my earlier years as I hung my clothes on the back of the washroom door and stripped off my quote on quote pajamas, which consisted of boxers and a simple, old, white t shirt.  

As I stepped into the shower I humored myself with memories of my old tardy ways. I was that guy that you needed to tell him to show up an hour earlier than the actual time, that way I would only be half an hour late. Teachers, parents, friends, they all loved me, well sort of, but that was usually their biggest complaint. As a student with an exceptional average, teachers couldn't fathom my tardy ways. I enjoyed school, especially when my subjects were interesting, but boy did I love to sleep. I used to sleep in almost every day of high school, and most days at lunch. So, I was late for about half my classes. 

I laughed at how unacceptable that would be at work as I lathered myself. How I didn't get in huge trouble for my habitual tardiness is still beyond me. If it hadn't been for my wife, I would probably have continued that terrible pattern though. It was on our first date, where I was only twenty minutes late to pick her up because my nap ran a bit long, that her words penetrated my hard head. From that day on, I never was late again. No, I was not whipped by my wife on our first date, but when she just simply told me that she would not date a boy that didn't respect her time, because a real man would be there early and she needed a real man, her saying that really effected me. It made me realize that I was no longer a little kid, that other people's time mattered, and that I should be respectful of that.