at dawn

for a little over a year now i have been waking up at dawn.

no, i don't have a sleeping problem; my shift starts at dawn, as it is for most of us who work at a call center.

so i wake to the shrill of the phone alarm and to the chill of a dark night, but i know that the night is done. dawn is quiet, save for the subtle frequency waves lapping at the ear drums: of bird songs from the bushes that seem to pound the hollow vastness of the sky and of church bells faintly calling from a distance. when you go to the streets, you'd think the roads knew no traffic jam.

upon arriving at the workplace the eye instantly adjusts to the bright flourescent lights that make anyone forget about the time and the darkness outside. it feels like being transported to a different time zone. it feels like a magic spell has just been cast--there's suddenly a lot of activity. (it makes me think of the prince and princesses in sleeping beauty's castle, all suddenly springing back to life, when she was finally kissed by her long-awaited prince.)

oh yes, i'm not alone. i'm in exalted company of people who, too, have promptly exchanged the warmth of their beds with the poignant coldness of the office booth and the rather monotonous job. mostly of those people who, for the immediate bigger pay, have sacrificed their dreams.

(sigh!) and so begins another struggler's day.