I snooze my alarm five times every morning, at least five times every morning. You don’t want to see how many alarms I have set up. Needless to say, early mornings are a bit of a struggle for me. I am not a morning person, nor do I think I will be unless my brain when I get older decides to stop wasting time and restructures itself.

Every now and then I wish my eyes could gently open to the warm sunshine, and my lips would curl into a smile, and I would leap out of bed. But then I remember how warm and cozy my bed is. New fuzzy pajamas from Christmas beg me to stay curled up in a ball of fuzzy, static blankets. The birds gently singing that would typically wake an early riser instead lull me back to sleep. My name is Grace Han, and I am a late sleeper.

Please, if you are reading this and are also a late sleeper, do know that it is not your fault. Everyone already knows being an early riser sounds great and productive, but so is being a night owl. It’s just in a different way. Blame your genetics and science. Literally, we night owls have different brains from early morning chippers. So blame your great genetics for giving you the gift of staying up late to binge Netflix.

Although the idea of getting up early and finishing your work early seems great, I also feel like I am productive enough where I am at now. Really, it doesn’t matter whether you get up early or late, so long as you finish your work in the end. I end up having more energy later in the day rather than earlier, so it’s no big deal. That’s why waking up early will not be on my New Year’s resolutions list this year. What will be on my list is creating a regular sleeping schedule. Simple, doable, and attainable. This is what the college life is like, right? Resolutions to have a regular schedule and be able to cook edible food, that’s all I really am aiming for because studies are just the side event. Just kidding, studies are important too I suppose.

All kidding aside, a purposeful and realistic goal will accomplish much more than a genetically impossible ideal will. I love huge, grand dreams. I love telling people to chase after them. But they can only be reached by purposeful actions. So you can be a dreamer, just be a realistic one taking little steps to get there. I know, big idea to get from sleeping through an alarm for a full hour, but I really do believe this is true. That’s how you get through this next year. So happy New Year, and I hope your life will be filled with small and great victories.