The Avesta, Volume 2, Number 3, Spring, 1918 Page: 7
32 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE AVESTA
On Getting Up in the Morning
CHAS. S. McCOMBS, Junior 7.
It is said that one can become accustomed to anything, even hang-
ing, if the act is repeated often enough. As I grow older, I believe this
assertion less and less. I have been getting up every morning for a little
more than nineteen years, and I am not used to it yet. It was quite as hard
for me to arise this morning as it was a year ago, or for that matter, ten
years ago. I have little hope that time will make this daily task easier for
me, and I have even imagined that I shall want to lie in my coffin for just
a few minutes on that glorious morning after Gabriel blows his horn.
I have often wondered why it is so hard for me to get up in the morn-
ing. Why should I wish to lie in bed until the last minute? I am no bed-
loving sluggard. A bed in itself holds no attractions for me. After I
once get up, I am not anxious to lie down again. I once asked a good
friend of mine to solve this problem for me, and he said that the seat of
the trouble was in the manner in which I was awakened. He advised me to
buy a good alarm clock and said that if I were awakened suddenly and
regularly every day, the habit of wishing to stay in bed late could be easily
overcome. I bought the clock and used it, but without success. If I put it
close to my bed at night, I would reach out the next morning and cut the
alarm off when it rang, and would then go peacefully back to sleep. On
the other hand, if I put it out of reach, I would lie still in bed and wait
patiently for the spring to run down, and then turn quietly over and begin
another snooze.
After the alarm clock episode, I tried the oldest way known in the
world,- that is, having some hardy soul who gets up in the wee, small
hours to wake me. For nearly a month various friends of mine volunteered
to do this service for me, but not one of them ever succeeded in getting
me up on the instant. Even their threats and their blows failed to rouse
me. I would open my eyes, smile sweetly, and go back to sleep again.
One of my father's friends heard of my malady in some way and
delivered me a long lecture on the subject. He appealed to my ambition,
but my ambition refused to be stirred. In vain did he call to my mind the
early rising habits of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. I looked inno-
cent, and asked him if it were not a fact that Burr and Arnold also were
early risers. I ventured to ask him if it were not likewise true that at
least a million and a half other men who had lived during the Colonial
period and got up early every morning had not in the end died unknown.7
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North Texas State Normal College. The Avesta, Volume 2, Number 3, Spring, 1918, periodical, Spring 1918; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2105588/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.