Mornings at Central

by Liam Faunce staff writer

We are already more than halfway through the school year, and as we try our best to rush through these final months, it takes a lot of preparation. Before the seven hour toll of learning and teaching, we have to be awake enough to get us through. Here at Central, we as a community want to make school as comfortable as possible. And so, as draining as the days may seem, we can look forward to enjoying more of our socialization and what we’re learning, especially since our final months for the school year have arrived. For many of us, our morning habits and rituals are what help us through.

Alexis Chambers ‘26 enjoys living a short distance from Central. “I wake up around 6:40 to have my friend drive me to school, and sometimes cereal is my go-to breakfast,” she says. “I don’t really have a pattern of habits that I do before school because it’s quite a struggle for me to get ready and motivated [albeit] my friends have helped me develop a good mindset for school.” According to Collegewise, freshman year can be tough for many students because you’re learning who you are and trying to figure out how to balance everything, so Chambers shows a clear example that community is one thing we can look forward to in the mornings aside from learning.

Similarly, Madison Dunckel ‘26 also gets up early in the morning, but like many students, tends to avoid breakfast. “I wake up at 6:30. I don’t eat breakfast [even if] it’s a struggle for me to get ready and motivated,” Dunckel confesses. As most of us know, breakfast is very crucial. If we don’t ingest something in the mornings, our blood sugar levels decrease, leading to various symptoms such as fatigue and lightheadedness (a friendly reminder for all staff and students).

Unlike Chambers, Dunckel has a further commute, which tends to impact the amount of sleep she gets. “I live [about] 20 minutes away from school,” Dunckel continues. “My sleep schedule is more different from the weekend than the week and so my parents have to yell at me to get up.” Studies also show that when your sleep schedule varies from weekdays to weekends, it disrupts your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is best known for managing your sleep-wake cycle, but it also helps to regulate a whole host of biological functions, from your energy and body temperature to your appetite and metabolism.

It’s not just students who feel the struggle. Being the one who has to continuously participate in activities for seven hours can be rough, but leading those tasks takes a bit more preparation than some students may think.

Lisa Johnson, a biology teacher here at Central, used to find mornings challenging, but she’s found ways to make them more manageable.

“I wake up at 6:15, [and] my work day starts immediately because my kids need things right away,” Johnson recounts. “[Although] it’s not much of a struggle for me to get ready and motivated, I’ve had jobs before I was a teacher where my alarm clock would go off, and I would be like ‘ahhh,’ but I don’t feel that way at all [anymore]. I love my job.”

Johnson’s routine mostly centers around getting her kids ready for the day and balancing her needs, too. “I make sure my kids have breakfast and are settled before I jump in the shower. Then after I get myself ready, I pack my daughters lunch for daycare, I pack my sons backpack, I grab my own items, and then I drop my daughter off at daycare on my way to school, [which] I live 6 miles from. I don’t hit much traffic on my route to school so it’s not really much of a concern for me. Coffee is my go-to breakfast.”

Johnson also wants to clarify that taking care of her kids isn’t much harder because other students may be going through a lot of hard things in the morning. “It really depends on what each person is having to deal with in the mornings,” she says. “Some people have to travel really far to get here, and it might be harder to get to school. They may not have a bus or a ride to school, they may be taking care of their little brothers and sisters in the mornings,” she concludes.

Everyone lives different lives outside of school, but it will also help us stay connected to reveal some of our perspectives on certain things so that it will make us relate more with each other. Every morning can seem the same or some mornings may be rough, but just remember that we are all collectively striving to end a good school day and to end a good school year. And the preparations of it all is what counts. Let’s make what’s left of the school year. //