Morning Routines
Bianca Sanon
Wake up. Brush teeth. Wash face. Start the coffee. Feed the cat. Feed the starter. Cut bread. Eat breakfast.
Morning routines have been my source of comfort in a rather uncomfortable year. A restaurant closed. An apartment was left behind. Several new environments, a few difficult conversations, and various challenging experiences have certainly made this past year one to remember.
I’m now laying roots in a new space – about a thousand miles from a place I had made a comfortable home for just shy of a decade, New York City. Spending 7 years in New York will change you; spending 7 years in New York during what some might consider your formative years will change you absolutely. So I’m now 26 and Miami is now “home”. This space is new, and yet somewhat familiar, which is the only way I can describe a place that I spent the first 18 years of my life.
I grew up in South Florida, in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, and moved to New York for college, and did my very best to never leave. After spending the better half of 2017 traveling–spending months at a time in the countryside of France and on a mountaintop in North Carolina–I’ve finally stopped moving. Now I’m being challenged to start over and make this place feel like home, again.
So what do you do when you move to a place that should already feel like home, but doesn’t? How do you shed off the discomfort of moving to a place that should already feel relatable, recognizable?
How do you make a place, a home, comfortable?
Comfort food certainly helps from time to time. But I have my particular eggplant in garlic sauce/wonton soup cravings when it comes to comfort food, and Miami doesn’t have Seamless.
It is important to mention that Ubereats is. not. the. same.
I don’t have my 20-minute quiet commute to myself on the subway. No matter how god awful MTA can be, you’ll be shocked to know: you miss it when you leave.
After living intermittently in New York, France, North Carolina, and Miami over the past year, especially when I’ve been used to being in the same place for years at a time, a lot of movement can throw typical habits throughout my day off kilter, out of whack. Where do I get groceries? Which gas station is the cheapest? What pizza spot is open late? Where is the got damn natural wine shop?
Despite the awkwardness of navigating all the newness, how I choose to start my day is something I can control, something with which I can center myself. It took me a while to realize it, but my morning routines have been the constant that keeps me grounded. Even when you’re practically living out of a suitcase, something so simple can make all the traveling less stressful.
For now, as long as I have a place to call home -- and truly what a blessing that is -- what I do in the morning, and the order I do it in, reminds me that while it can be overwhelming, embracing change can be good. As I go through the same steps, the same process to start my day, I can approach new habits and newness in general with a lot less skepticism and discomfort.
Wake up. Brush teeth. Wash face. Start the coffee. Feed the cat. Feed the starter. Cut bread. Eat breakfast.