Today marks the day where our clocks “spring forward,” in honor of Daylight Saving Time (DST). It can get pretty confusing trying to remember whether you’ll be losing or gaining an extra hour of sleep, but at the very least one fact has remained constant throughout the years: every morning the sun rises up whether or not you rise up with it.

I know for certain that I am in the minority when it comes to being an early bird. Responding to text messages at 6:00 a.m., completing my daily exercise before my friends wake up, sometimes I forget that these are unusual hours for the typical 22-year-old to be awake.

Every day I get up when the sun does, sometimes even before. There’s something quite moving about the silence that comes with waking up before everyone else. The house is still, the sun gradual to rise.

Every morning I am reminded that I am a little speck in a big universe, kind of like the whos’ in “Horton Hears A Who.” I tend to escape into my own world when I play music or listen to a podcast on my morning run, but every so often, I snap back into reality.

There I am, lost in my own head when suddenly, one of my earphones gets knocked out, or I’m nearly run over by someone rushing to work.

In those moments, I am reminded that I’m becoming more and more visible. The sun is getting brighter and sometimes I get so caught up in my little world that I forget to look. I forget to look at the sky.

In those early mornings, I tend to forget that I am in the presence of something special: there’s an entire sky for me to admire, one that others won’t be awake to see.

If you ever wonder why some people are early birds, look no further than the sky. There lies your answer. There lies the reminder that to witness a sky in the early hours, even a blue one, is a wonderful thing.