For someone who likes to sleep with a nightlight on, I must admit, I don’t appreciate how the morning light has begun to saunter into my room as I settle down for bed. The gratitude I felt for the extra hour of sleep when the clocks went back has been long forgotten, replaced with frustration at the fact that it’s been a consistent couple of weeks of 5am-2pm slumbers. In an ideal world, I’d be able to get to bed between 12 and 1am, just in time for a solid 8am start.

“It’s easy to feel like it’s not worth getting up when you’ve slept away the majority of everyone else’s waking hours.”

If you think the process of going to bed sounds hard enough, consider how difficult getting up from the snooze chamber of hell must be, especially when you’ve had the heating blasting all night and you’re cocooned in the most perfect duvet roll possible. Every time I finally wake up, the war is waged, the snooze button is hit, and TikTok is mindlessly scrolled through, but amidst the day-in-my-life montages, and the bones/no bones discourse, I’ve found some unexpected motivation. One of the pinned TikToks from my favourite creator, @notmymango, captioned ‘a late start is better than no start at all’ has honestly been the thing to get me out of bed on days that have felt particularly difficult. It’s easy to feel like it’s not worth getting up when you’ve slept away the majority of everyone else’s waking hours and the sky begins to darken, but accepting the late start, rather than resenting myself for it, has been an important step in reframing my outlook on how I spend my days.

They say that you should start your day off with something you enjoy. Contemplating whether you’ll be able to regulate your temperature in the outside world without the help of a duvet, and therefore whether you need to don, or discard, the odd hat or scarf, is not the most enjoyable game to play with yourself. But, when it’s a toss-up between this debate of the century and crying in bed over your inability to find the required reading for the week, there is a clear winner every time.

Now that you’re out of bed and appropriately dressed? It’s time to soundtrack this momentous occasion – and what better to blast through your earphones than Red (Taylor’s Version)? More specifically, Nothing New. Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers’ devastatingly beautiful collaboration really douses my day in feelings of nostalgia. Their depiction of the realisation that growing up means trading in one’s initial naïve confidence, instead choosing to surrender to the world and one’s own circumstances, has resonated particularly strongly for me this term. As frustrating as it can be to feel that there is so much beyond our control, I have a newly awakened, undeniable gratitude for all that I can control. Feeling as though I could have the choice between staying in bed and going for these walks was, in itself, a moment of empowerment. Choosing to take the long way around town, traipsing through the Backs and round Jesus Green was, quite literally, a breath of fresh air.

“Gazing at the light of the stars instead of the light of the laptop has instilled a more can-do attitude.”

As much as I miss the feeling of sunlight on skin, venturing out during these late November afternoons has afforded me the endlessly awe-inspiring sight of a sky full of stars (Coldplay really knew what they were on about). I’d always appreciated the view of the moon I’d get most nights from the window of my childhood bedroom, but it doesn’t begin to compare to the joy of being able to simply glance upwards and be met with a starry sky. Having settled for just pointing out the North Star when looking at the stars at home, it’s a wonderful feeling being able to point to entire constellations from atop Castle Mound. I’ve never really been one for meditation, but taking the time on these walks to have a moment with the literal stars of the celestial stage soothes an otherwise-anxious heart.

And I’ve got to say, the return to my room is another battle of wills. There’s something so welcoming about an unmade bed and, honestly, I do – at times – give into the temptation. However, on better days, an evening stroll leaves me feeling a little more invigorated. It’s something so minor, but it gives me something I can feel like I’ve achieved that day. Having emerged from a slump wherein it felt like a mammoth task to even leave bed, taking the time to change out of pyjamas and and put on a semi-decent outfit and trawl about town for an hour or so means that gazing at the light of the stars instead of the light of the laptop has instilled a more can-do attitude.

In a season as centred on change and renewal as autumn, it’s an invigorating sight to see nature thriving when you, yourself, feel trapped in a state of stagnancy. At this point in term, it’s easy to feel like the passive recipient to all the blows life has to throw at you, but seeing reminders of continual regeneration in the world around you affirm the fact that, while it may not feel like it at the time, you, too, are undergoing similar growth.