Where Are You From?

Tuesday morning, after a restless night of sleep interrupted by flat pillows, noisy neighbors, and sweet-food-before-bed-induced dreams, I was awoken by a stream of golden sunlight bleeding through my blinds onto my desk, my bed, my whole room.

At 7:17 am.

For any college student, this is the equivalent of being knocked out of a dead sleep during witching hour just to be told there was a squirrel outside.

As irritated as I was to be up before I absolutely needed to be, the romantic inside of me needed to see this sunrise, so I slowly reached my arm from my covers and peeked through the blinds, careful not to let so much light in the room as to wake my sleeping roommate. Though the restricted view from my bed was not particularly astounding, it was enough. The sky was every shade of orange, red, pink, and gold that existed. It was as if someone spilled their peach smoothie right across the sky, covering the Earth in a blanket of citrus sweetness. A tiny voice inside me said, “go to the balcony outside, go look at the whole sky, go take a picture!”. A part of me which got, abruptly, ignored. I slid back into my bed and pulled the covers over my head to block out the sun’s rays, and as quickly as I had been awoken, fell back asleep.

Think back to the last time you’ve seen a sunrise, like a really, truly, beautiful, get-out-of-bed-to-go-see sunrise. Before Tuesday, I don’t remember the last one I had been awake for. Now, think back to the last gorgeous sunset you’ve witnessed. Probably easier to remember, right? That’s because most of us are out and about, or at least awake, when the sun is setting. We’re on our ways home from work, or walking our dogs, or if you’re me, sitting in traffic on Western Boulevard on your way to dance practice. But not many people are awake when the sun is rising, save those few brave souls whose work schedules require them to be. We always see the beauty in the ending of our day, but never the beginning.

This got me thinking: the beginning of each new season in our lives quite often goes unnoticed. It’s not like whenever our lives change direction a giant sign appears in front of us: “Chapter 10”. We don’t live inside books. If only it was that easy. We may not realize where we are until we’re in the middle of it, or maybe until it ends. An example of this in my life is my best friendship: I didn’t realize how much time we really spent together until all of the sudden her mom was buying my favorite foods to keep stocked in the fridge.

I am a firm believer that the best things in life are the unexpected ones. The ones you cannot see coming. The ones that just. Happen. The ones that years from now you’ll look back at and think: wow, who would have thought that seemingly insignificant happening would have turned into something that means the world to me now. You may not have seen their beginning, but I think that’s precisely what makes them so beautiful.

Those sunrises while you’re sleeping make the ones you are awake for all the more stunning.

If we could see the pivotal moments that change our lives and who we are, they would lose their meaning, because their beauty lies within their mystery. In their ability to become, well, anything.

And just like the way we always see sunsets, we usually can see the closing of each chapter of our lives. We know when a relationship is over, when we change careers, when we (finally) graduate.

So, what’s my point? My point is simply this: to every sunset, there had to have been a sunrise. And just as there was the day before, the sun will rise again. Every chapter in your life had a beginning, you just couldn’t see it. Not because you weren’t paying attention, but just because life is sneaky like that. The person you’re going to marry – they started out as a stranger. The career you’re going to build your life off of – it started as a hobby. Life likes to slip in through back doors. So, if you find yourself at the visible end of a chapter wondering what lies next, don’t worry, because there will be a new chapter. In fact, your new chapter is probably already beginning, and you can’t even see it. Take comfort in the endleses possibilities that lie ahead of you.

And never forget,

The sun will rise again.