Taming The Beast

Alexandra Rappaport ’13 makes her hair one of her utmost priorities in the morning. Though she showers at night, she still wakes up at either 5:25, 5:27 or 5:30 a.m. depending on the day, to touch up her hair, which has been washed, blow dried and straightened the night before.

“For some, taking a shower is a simple task, but, for me, it’s a long process,” she said. “If I showered in the morning, I would have to wake up at 4 a.m. just to tame the beast.”

Rappaport’s hair is only one item on her morning agenda that contributes to her necessary hour and 20 minutes—approximately. “It may be strange to some, but, to me, it’s just my life.”

Early Bird

As tired Staples students file into the building every morning at 7, Principal John Dodig stands in the center of the lobby, bright-eyed and ready for the school day.

While the students are still trying to wake up, the principal has been awake for almost three hours. “I am most definitely a morning person,” he said. “The alarm rings, and within a second, I shut it off, and I’m out of bed. I’ve never used a snooze button.” On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he’s up at 4:30 a.m. so he can get to the gym and be at Staples by 6:15. “If I didn’t go to the gym, I couldn’t run up and down the stairs all day,” he said.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he skips the gym and is in school by 6. With an hour and a half before the final bell rings, Dodig uses the time to sign checks, sign purchase orders and send emails, so that everyday without fail he can be out in the corridor by 7 a.m.

“I’ve been doing it my whole teaching life,” he says. “It’s in my DNA. I need to settle down, look at my calendar and see what I’m doing for the day. I would come here at any time just to make sure I could do that.”

On The Go

For Hannah Lewis ’14, getting up in the morning is no easy task. “I wake up at 6:40, after hitting the snooze button like 12 times,” she says.

This wake-up call leaves her with about 25 minutes until she leaves her house at 7:05 a.m. Breakfast has little priority, and, frequently, a granola bar will do. “I’m not a breakfast person so something small is usually enough,” she says.

For Lewis and many juniors at Staples, the car line at Wakeman looms, making it especially important to be on the go on time—but, with less than a half hour to spare, sometimes that’s not always the case. “If I’m running late, I just suck it up, but sometimes I make my mom follow me and then drive me from Wakeman to school,” Lewis said. “If you’re reading this, mom, sorry! I can’t help it if I need a few extra minutes.”