Early bird catches the worm

Around 6:00 a.m., alarms within Montgomery County homes go off, commencing a daily ritual for most Blair students. However, there is a small number of students who have been wide awake long before the start of school. They dedicate those early morning hours to specific activities.

Whether it is for an athletic activity or a religious group, these blazers find ways to start their day before the "typical teenager." Morning Bells are Ringing

Senior Hannah Willis wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to attend church services every single school day. "I'm lucky because I live close to my church, but some of my friends have to get up at 4:30 a.m.," Willis said. She has dedicated her life to this every morning since freshman year, so it has been engraved into her routine. "I go there every morning, so obviously, church is a big part of my life; I focus a lot on it," she explains.

And she maintains that her day is just like everyone else's except with an earlier start time. "When I'm in first period and everybody is like sitting there feeling dead, I'm there thinking, 'I've been in class for an hour, so I'm kind of more awake than everyone," Willis explains.

She acknowledges that although it is not a big deal now, it was hard to wake up back when she first started going to church. "Going freshman year was really rough because I'd get to school and I'd already be drained, but you get used to it," Willis realizes.

She also realizes that it is easier to wake up because she actually enjoys going to church. "I really like it and I have a lot of friends there. I've gotten really close with them," Willis says. But although her love of the activity is no secret, Willis still feels worn out by the end of the day. "Towards the end of the day, I might peter out a little faster, possibly just because it's a longer day," Willis adds.

Diving at Dawn

Junior Ceci Bergman has been a diver on Blair's Swim and Dive team since freshman year. However, starting this year, the divers began to have morning practices. On Tuesdays and Thursdays of the winter season, she and the rest of the team would have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to make the 5:15 morning practices.

The fact that she's on a team motivated her to show up to the pool at those early hours. "It's an opportunity to get better and have more time to actually do something," she explained. She's also glad that she has her fellow teammates encouraging her at the morning practices. "My teammate, Bryan was there and we would tell each other stuff about our dives," Bergman remembers.

In addition to the Tuesday and Thursday morning practices, Blair's Swim and Dive also had Wednesday practices after school. Bergman, however, preferred morning practices over the ones in the afternoon. "During Wednesday afternoon practices, there are two boards and you have to share it with like 50 other high school students because it is not only Blair, so you just have a lot less time to actually do dives," Bergman explains. Though there are plenty of benefits to morning practices, Bergman realizes that sleep deprivation was an issue. "I was trying to be vigilant about how much sleep I was actually getting, but of course I was more sleep deprived," Bergman said.

Like Willis, however, Bergman notes how it eventually becomes part of your routine. "You get used to it," Bergman says.

Even though the horrible hours of the dawn are pungent to some of us, these early birds realize that the activities that they commit themselves are a great experience. Once past that "oh gosh, I have to get out of bed" feeling, they see how the activities are in fact quite enjoyable.