Rebecca Toy
Besides turning 23 in four months and therefore being the oldest in my college house, I learned I am called “grandma” for another reason. I’d say that I’m a young, decently fit, college student so why am I being called a grandma? Well, at exactly 7:25am when the rest of my roommates are sleeping, I am just sitting down at my coffee table for my morning ritual which consists of, you guessed it, reading the news.
Post spin class or a morning run you (as my roommates do) can find me sitting on the couch drinking a freshly cup of brewed coffee, eating breakfast which usually consists of a spinach and onion omelette, and learning what happened in the world while I was dreaming about Sam Hunt for seven hours through the night. Over the years this “grandma” has realized that she has a love for the morning time. Call me crazy, but I intentionally wake up early so I have enough time for my morning ritual. I’d much rather be scrambling my eggs in the morning for breakfast than scrambling to get to class on time. This morning ritual helps me wake up, puts me in a positive attitude, and most importantly makes me feel prepared and aware to take on the day (and LA traffic).
This “awareness” comes from a multitude of sources that are apart of my morning ritual. My habit of reading the news started as a result of a class assignment and over the year has earned enough approval to make me get out of bed even earlier. The very first one is the Skimm email I receive every week day. It’s short, sweet, and to the point which makes it not too intimidating to read so early in the morning. Along with eating my breakfast and reading the Skimm, the Today Show on channel 4 is playing in the background. This is the main source which gave my roommates the idea of my nickname because they see me watching it when they emerge from their sleeping caves in the morning to go to the bathroom. To me, the show presents a balanced mix of current event news as well as the latest hot trends. Following the quick Skimm read comes the New York Times. I like to read the Daily Briefings because again it’s an easy read but more often than not goes further in detail than the Skimm. The last two sources are ones that I check periodically throughout the day as opposed to just the morning: Facebook and LinkedIn. These sites offer more knowledge about what is going on in my social network however they also provide more creative ways to learn the news such as showing videos or listing blogs.
I guess since I am graduating in less than two weeks and will be going to work everyday it is time for this “grandma” to learn how to officially “adult”. That is a whole other story, but I know for a fact that my morning ritual will continue post graduation and assist me in doing so. I am confident about this because if I am willing to read all these articles and feel informed just before going to my 11:30am yoga class, I know I will be desperate to feel this way before walking into an office everyday.