EARLY to bed, and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
-The Nursery Rhyme Book, by Unknown
As a young man, sleeping and waking up early was
something Jack could never do. He loved his sleep very much. He would sleep for
hours on end, snoozing for nearly twelve hours a night! He would go to bed at
odd hours of the night on weekends, some nights 2:00 AM, some nights 4:00 AM
and wake up in the afternoon. School nights weren't any better, he would fall
asleep around 1:00 AM and barely wake up in time to get ready and get to school
on time. It got so bad that he ended up being late almost every day! After a
few years of this, Jack started to see a decline in his health and productivity.
He had gained a lot of weight over the years, he was broke and was failing his
classes, and he had no motivation to do anything. His father had noticed Jack’s
bad habits and decided it was time to talk to him.
“Hey there”, he said. “I've noticed you've been
failing your classes. You also aren't making any money or have a job like the
rest of the kids your age. Do you know why?”
Jack responded by saying, “I just love to sleep, Dad”.
“Do you know how I got to be as successful as I am
today?” he asked Jack. Jack shook his head no and looked up at his dad. “Work
ethic”, he said. “I was always up by five in the morning. I would go workout,
shower get ready, eat breakfast and be ready for class or work an hour before I
had to be there. Waking up early ensures that you’re not wasting your whole
day. It gives you time to do more, like study, stay healthy, have a job. After
work or school, I would come home, eat dinner, relax, and then take care of any
other errands I had to do. I wouldn't laze around all day. And then around ten
or eleven, I would already be in my bed, ready to wake up for the next day of
opportunity.”
From that day, Jack took his dad’s advice to heart
and fixed his sleeping schedule. He would wake up every morning at six, get
ready for school by 7, eat breakfast and be on his way to school. He
immediately noticed improvements in his health, grades, and social life. He got
a job and started making money, and he also realized that sleeping early gave
him enough energy to carry on throughout the rest of the day and accomplish
more tasks. “This is great”, he thought. “I should have started doing this a
long time ago”. In the end, Jack became a successful businessman and it was all
because he made one simple change to his daily habits.
 |
| "Early bird gets the worm"; Sketchport
Author’s
Note: I chose this proverb from The Nursery Rhyme Book,
edited by Andrew Lang (1897). The proverb is pretty simple, stating that the
person to sleep and rise early will be the most successful. I took that in
relation with school and work ethic and how that plays a vital role in the
outcome of a person’s success. A person who is disciplined enough to get the
day started early is bound to succeed in my opinion.
|
What a nice way to take the little rhyme and put it in the form of a story, Parth. There's another proverb, "Examples speak louder than words" — and by giving us an example of someone who sleeps too much and the price he pays for snoozing, it gives the advice a power it does not have when it is just the words without examples. I am not very good at getting up early, but I never regret it when I do: it's such a pleasure to get most of the important day's work done before noon. Although, I will admit, I do love a good snooze!!! Anyway, with an online class, everybody can set their own schedule... and people do work for this class at some pretty odd hours that's for sure. Meanwhile, thanks for working ahead like this: another great life strategy! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how we both chose to write about sleep for our storytelling post. I don't think I've ever willingly woken up before 9 before. Sleep is one of my favorite things to do - as well as eating and reading. However, it's definitely nice to get things done on time by waking earlier and sleeping at a reasonable hour. I would have saved myself from a lot of stress over my college years if I hadn't overslept or procrastinated.
ReplyDeleteI think its awesome how Leslie and you both chose the same rhyme to write! Sleep is very important! I watched a TED video about sleep and it basically determines our whole day. As college students, we are always short on time. By having a set sleeping schedule will be beneficial. Nice story!:)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I commend you for fleshing out such a simple proverb! You did a good job. You really illustrated the concept of the proverb, along with the consequences associated with both waking up early and being productive or sleeping in and wasting your life. I also liked your use of dialogue, I think it added an extra element to the story that also increased the complexity of it. I would have liked to maybe see a little more variety in the situations you placed Jack in. Maybe like a specific anecdote about a time that Jack slept in and missed out on a really important opportunity, maybe missed the girl of his dreams because he did not get out of bed. Something that brought Jack down to rock bottom and made him decide on such a lifestyle change, and then factor in his dad being such a role model for this proverb, because nobody listens to their parents. :) Good job on this!
ReplyDeleteI love the entire story you put together from a two-lined proverb!! I feel like you did a really great job at conveying Jack's sleeping schedule to the reader (and I can personally relate to not getting enough sleep) but I suggest adding more descriptions to Jack and his father. Having more descriptions on what kind of guy Jack is and if he's just lazy or overly exhausted will help the reader determine if he's a sloth or just nocturnal. I agree with what Marielle said about adding small anecdotes. Also you could try breaking up the paragraphs a little more. This just makes it easier for a reader to dissect sentences when they are broken up into smaller sections. Especially when you have a character talking, you want to have it in a paragraph by itself to draw attention to it. However, I loved when your wrote the line of Jack saying “I should have started doing this a long time ago”. I loved that you ended your story with a positive outlook!
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job turning a short nursery rhyme into a full story! That takes a lot of creativity. I think it was really great how you developed the dad's character through direct dialogue. That's a good way to present facts about him and to include his own emotions about those facts. And it's great how you elaborated on the moral of the story. You really illustrated how a good sleep schedule can make someone healthy, wealthy, and wise in a way the reader has no trouble imagining.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to suggest anything for this story, I would say that Jack's character could have a little more depth. It might be more relatable if he had more of an emotional arc accompanying his big life change. For example, perhaps he struggled with it at first and had to gradually adjust but started to notice a lot of benefits from the change.
Hi, Parth! I think it’s great that you took this two lined proverb and turned it into a wonderful story about how work ethic is extremely important in order to live a successful life. The character of Jack was the most intriguing to me. I think we’ve all experienced having Jack’s attitude at some point in our lives. Jack’s character was well developed because of how his lifestyle was described. It was easy for me to understand the character of Jack. The character of Jack’s father was also well developed because of the description of how Jack’s father built up his work ethic. Your transitions from paragraph to paragraph were also nicely done. It helped me to experience each event of the story step by step. I only saw a few minor mistakes with your sentence structure, such as missing commas and one run on sentence, but overall you did a fantastic job! I can’t wait to read more of your stories.
ReplyDelete