Maui, HI: Awakened by my internal body clock, now five hours behind my usual standard time zone, I decided to stop trying to fight staying in bed until at least 6am and just get up. As I dressed in silence, I opened my wooden blinds to see.... darkness. I squinted my eyes to try to make out the difference between the tree tops and the line where the ocean met the sand, but only blackness covered my view. For a split second, I wondered what it would be like if THIS were it. If the sun didn't rise, if there was no more light, if I had to live the rest of my life in darkness. I hurried down the beach, heart racing from the mere thought. As I drew nearer, I blinked and the sky had a slightly different hue. Slowly and steadily, the details around me started coming into view. As the water continually tried to rest, only to be broken up by a crashing wave, I looked up to see a shade of pink painting itself behind the barely lit sky. I took a deep breath and was comforted by the truth that it is always darkest before the dawn.
