Stop Wondering

For me, it’s funny: This question-‘What is my night?’ What do you mean by that? What do you want to know? Well, maybe what I do during the night? What I don’t do? What I wish I would do?

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a literal answer, a typical night for me consists predominantly of…sleep. Not that fancy huh? I agree. But that’s not the way I would like it to be. I have never been one of those people who look forward to going to bed. Ever since I was a little kid, I have purposefully plotted to stay awake past my bedtimes, abused my nightly recommended hours of sleep and devoted large portions of my time in trying to persuade my parents why they should “let me stay up an extra half hour even though I am only ‘x’ years old”. “Why?” –I here you ask with great confusion.

Well, it’s pretty simple actually; I don’t like sleeping. I see it as a waste of lifetime. A third of their lives humans spend sleeping? It’s absurd! I mean, think about it, imagine you’re going to live to a grand ninety years old: Thirty years of that will be spent lying down with your eyes shut! Scary thought huh? Well, that’s exactly the thought that fuels me to fight fatigue when night comes. There’s just too much stuff I could be doing, places I could be going to, goals I could be working towards. Thoughts like these are the causes of all my tossing and turning at night. They are the reason I am practically a semi-insomniac.

So what do I do about my problem? After all, I am not superhuman; everybody needs to recharge their batteries once in a while. But how do I do this without contradicting my pre-stated stern opinion about our traditional nocturnal activity? Well, over the years, I have developed the following guideline: go to bed late and wake up early. I know, it is not the healthiest of mottos. But for me, night time is not anything different from day time. For me, it’s just the day continued but with a little less light in the sky.

So what do I get up to after dark? I’ve decided to stay up so what am I going to do with my time now? Well that really depends. Occasionally, I’ll be boring and go for a jog by twilight. Other times, I’ll go out to shoot some night photography, stay in to edit my latest short film, or when things get really ‘crazy’, I’ll go out at midnight and practice holding handstands in the middle of the Plaza del Castillo in Pamplona, Spain [if you feel so inclined, you can see a video edit that I made of my trip to Pamplona on my YouTube channel].

However, I’m still studying, and as a student [and I’m sure if you are a student reading this you will agree with me here] you frequently find yourself doing late night studying. And to be honest, that bothers me a little bit.

Whether I’m pulling an all-nighter or catching up on missed classwork, I often feel frustrated that I have to do this work, which half the time doesn’t fully interest me, but then again I am a student who knows his priorities. In fact, I’m currently doing extra studying every other night as I plan on applying to American universities in a year’s time. Anyway, as a student you are tied by school, you are forced to make compromises and obliged to carefully choose ‘your nights’. Whoever said “When you are young, you can do anything” is full of crap.

So what am I getting at? What’s the big picture here? I think it’s all about taking advantage; taking advantage of what you can make happen, stop wondering “what if” and start doing the things you really want to do. To quote Mr DiCaprio from Titanic; “I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it”, and that’s how I’m taking advantage. I’m taking advantage of my night.