The morning rush

“Bayad po, North Edsa, estudyante po.”

That has become my daily routine for the past two weeks since I started my internship. What’s also become my routine is to to wake up late, inhale loads of pollution and squeeze myself into jeepneys, even when they’re full. Welcome to the morning rush.

I’m an incoming fourth year student taking up Communication Arts, and, as a requirement, I have to complete 200 hours of internship in a company. To be honest, the 200 hours seemed okay—until I got my schedule. It was 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

When my supervisor told me that, my mind suddenly kept replaying 6 a.m. as if it were taunting me. For a virtual sloth like me who wakes up at 9 a.m. on a regular day, this was dreadful to hear. I almost wanted to believe it was only a dream. But, since I had no choice, I just had to tell myself it would all be over soon enough.

Since my shift starts at 6 a.m., to reach the office on time, I have to wake up at 4 and leave at 5. For a person who is used to staying awake and finishing tasks at night, this sounded next to impossible. For a while, I was ready to give up. It felt for days like I was about to collapse at any moment, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

My day usually starts with the alarm ringing, which I had set the previous day and to which I never really respond with any sense of promptness. It would be set to 3:30, 3:35, 3:40 and so on. Finally, with my ears exhausted and my hands tired from snoozing the alarm, I would drag myself out of bed and, with eyes barely open, limp around to fix myself and get ready.

Every single morning was like this at first; I was thoroughly unenthusiastic to be out of the house. But I had to do this internship.

After a week, as my body got used to my new routine, I began feeling that it wasn’t so bad anymore. It was surprising to me how I was slowly learning to wake up and leave on time, and actually not frown when I left my apartment. It was still difficult, but no longer as dreadful as the first few days. It became more and more bearable, and I’ll tell you why.

Our body is very easy to train, but what’s easier to train is our minds. When we persuade ourselves that we need to accomplish a certain task, our mind will easily accept it. All we have to do is train it so it doesn’t get tempted into doing something else. In short, discipline.

For a while, me and discipline were enemies, because discipline is difficult to achieve, follow and sustain. Discipline is hard at first, but rewarding in the end. But is the reward really why we do what we have to do?

There is no reward or prize for doing something well, except perhaps that nonmaterial thing—self-fulfillment. Self-fulfillment brings about self-confidence, and when you have self-confidence, you feel invincible.

Having discipline in life, be it in time or work, is vital when working in a system, especially a system that you learn to respect because of how it contributes to your growth, and how you’re able to contribute to it, too.

How was the morning rush today, you ask? It was okay.

Better than yesterday, and I’m sure it’ll be better tomorrow.

Yukti Shewakramani, 20, is an incoming fourth year Communication Arts student at the University of Santo Tomas.