You Can Sleep When You’re Dead

I truly believe the saying “You can sleep when you’re dead.” There is too much going on in the world around us to sleep. It may be midnight here in Texas, but somewhere else, the sun is shining, and people are being brought into the world and leaving it.

Every time I go to Sri Lanka, I find it astounding that it is ten at night in Texas while it is eight in the morning in Sri Lanka. One summer, I volunteered at a Sri Lankan hospital. While my friends in Texas stayed up late watching reruns on TV, I watched countless people get rabies shots and spent hours looking over the wards filled with hurt or dying people, one of whom was in tremendous pain from a case of chicken pox. While people in Texas were asleep, I watched a mother cry hysterically after an inexperienced driver had run over and killed her daughter. This made me realize that I don’t have the luxury of wasting time because I don’t know how long my life will be. I don’t know what may happen while I sleep.

Since returning from that trip, I have worked to enjoy every moment of each day. Midnight is my favorite—some of the moments when I have felt most alive have been when I was so sleepy that I could fall asleep over the textbook I was reading. I even started writing this at 12:30 AM. I love the silence that fills the world in the wee hours of the morning—it makes me feel alone and yet connected with Mother Nature, God, and whatever else is out there. I loved spinning around in the musky midnight air after I finished running the mile at a track meet, ignoring the sleepy people around me who dragged themselves to their cars, giving me odd looks. This was a time for celebration—I had just run my best mile time! I didn’t care if it was midnight; I was going to celebrate like it was four in the afternoon and I had eaten way too much candy.

I also believe that ‘sleep’ doesn’t just mean when my head is on a pillow—it also means when I am walking down the street, not paying attention to my surroundings because I am so lost in thought. I am missing out on life if I walk by a stranger without smiling at them or if I do not stare up at the clouds and think, “That one looks like a rabbit riding a dragon!”

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. I’ve heard it and said it so many times. But what is the use of saying it if I am half-asleep, dragging my body through life? I will always think of midnight as the perfect time to make chocolate mousse and the day before finals as a day to spend twenty minutes blowing bubbles. Being awake is worth so much more than missing experiences while you sleep.