Whether you’re a student or a teacher, everyone has their morning routine that they follow. One’s routine changes depending on many factors, distance from school, time it takes to get ready, how prepared you are, etc.

Recently I’ve made some changes to my routine, such as adding in extra time to get ready, laying in bed longer, and taking a bit longer to get to school. But I live close to BSGE, what about students and teachers who live farther away? Or closer?

One junior, who lives in Sunnyside, says she wakes up at 5:45 AM and immediately dreads getting out of her bed. Afterwards, she goes to the bathroom, brushes her teeth, puts on her clothes, and tries to wake herself up. Then around 6:00 to 6:20, she prays and reads the Quran.

Following that, she eats breakfast, does her hair, hijab, and makeup, all without any caffeine. This routine is only for when her parents can drop her off. If it’s by train then she wakes up at 5:15 and everything is shifted a half an hour earlier.

Like most people, the worst part of her routine is waking up and getting out of bed, but she says her favorite part is doing her makeup and hair. Unlike most people, however, she makes her bed in the morning which is a habit that I’m sure a lot of us need.

Another junior, Felicity Morel, who lives in Astoria has a different routine than the Sunnyside junior. Felicity has 3 alarms for 6:00, 6:30, and 6:45 and when Alexa wakes her up, she immediately goes to the bathroom.

When she gets out, she tells Alexa to play “hype” songs from artists like Brent Faiyaz or Bad Bunny. Then she goes to her closet and picks out a hoodie, a pair of jeans, and sneakers. One interesting fact about Felicity is that she often sleeps with her computer because she does homework super late and falls asleep while doing it.

Her favorite part of her morning routine is her “music jam sesh” while picking out an outfit for the day. Ironically, her least favorite part is actually picking the outfit because she repeats a lot of them.

Felicity then sits down and responds to her messages while eating a salad. She says “people love messaging me at 3 AM”. After breakfast she goes back into the bathroom and brushes her teeth. Depending on when she gets out of bed, she might do makeup and do her hair.

Felicity does something that’s out of the ordinary, which is that she meditates and gives herself affirmations. She says it “helps kind of set the mood for the day” and prepares her for if she has a bad day at school. Other days she’ll do prayer.

Once Felicity leaves her house, she gets one of three coffee orders: Oat milk latte with caramel, vanilla latte, or regular iced coffee, dark, no sugar. On her way to school, she listens to Future, her current favorite being “Like That”.

Matthew Picioane is a Junior who lives in Middle Village. Matthew’s commute is 40 minutes, so tries to wake up at 6:30 AM. If and when he does wake up late, Matthew “speedruns” his routine but this means his outfits aren’t well thought out because he doesn’t have time to iron them. 

After Matthew wakes up, he chooses not to have breakfast no matter how early he wakes up. Matthew never leaves his house without his earbuds and when he does leave the house at 7:00 AM, he plays some Joost Klein to get him “going” in the morning. His music does switch up every now and then, as Matthew states, it’s “whatever I’m into for that week or month”.

Matthew’s favorite part of his morning routine is picking out his clothes and getting dressed, although most days he is lazy to do so. His least part is feeling like he forgot his keys, which he does quite frequently. 

These past few morning routines have been from students, but what about teachers? In what ways do they differ or be similar to students? To help answer this question we have assistant principal, Mr. Boyno who lives in East Elmhurst.

Mr. Boyno has 2 alarms set for 5:00 AM and 5:06 AM, but after the first alarm he hits snooze so he technically has a third alarm set for 5:09 AM. The reason he has 3 different alarms is so if he wakes up late, he has extra time built into his routine. Boyno’s go-to breakfast is very specific: a toasted peanut butter sandwich with a black coffee. He pours himself and his wife some too.

His routine is so specific that his coffee must be 80 grams of coffee beans, freshly grounded, and 1.25 liters of water! After he gets his coffee maker going, he heads into the bathroom at around 5:15-5:20 AM and gets out at 5:30-5:35 AM. Afterwards, he’ll put on sweats and complete the NYT games such as Wordle, Connections, and especially the new game Strands.

At 6:20 AM he puts work clothes on, and by 6:40 he’ll get on his bike and bike to BSGE, which is around a 15-18 minute commute. Typically he arrives at BSGE at 7:00 AM and that’s when his day has really started. 

However, this wasn’t always his routine. Before he became a teacher at BSGE, Mr. Boyno would get out of his bed at 6:55 AM and catch the train at 7:11 AM. His routine became a lot more complex when he started attending BSGE because he needs more time to transition into the day. 

Boyno’s favorite part of his new routine is his “first sip of coffee,” but his least favorite is actually making the coffee. He says that after the first sip is“ when the fun stuff happens.”

Another teacher whose routine has changed since being a teacher is Ms. Zheng, who lives in Chinatown. Ms. Zheng has an alarm set for 6:30 AM but always wakes up 30 minutes earlier than it. She can’t imagine waking up late because “how do you pretend imperfection?”

Zheng used to be a breakfast person, until her parents fed her horrible breakfasts during COVID. They said “you need more calcium in life” and the breakfasts were meant to boost Zheng’s immune system. These unappetizing breakfasts made her no longer a breakfast person, but still enjoys sweet pastries in the morning like eclairs, bread with custard, or even a donut.

After she gets up at around 6:30 AM, Ms. Zheng instantly puts in her Air Pods and listens to music for the duration of her morning. She does the Wordle and reads her manga. Then she washes, and refills, her UV Water Bottle. Her song choice depends on her mood but also when she plays a song, she plays it for days or even a week sometimes. Her preferred genre of music is K-Pop/J-Pop.

Afterwards, by 6:45 AM she’ll have her outfit picked out and shoes on then at 6:50 she’s out of her house. Ms. Zheng isn’t a coffee person, but occasionally drinks Monster.

Ms. Zheng’s favorite part is coordinating an outfit because she doesn’t think of one the night before, “it’s whatever I feel that day”. However, her least favorite part is walking to Grand Street for the B and D trains.

Everyone at BSGE has such different morning routines, whether they wake up late, drink coffee, prepare their outfits, or have long commutes, but we all end up at the same place each day.