Making Your Bed in 2020

By Catherine Horner '22

Standing in my room, I think about how much energy it would take to make my bed.  I do not have a perfect track record since the start of quarantine, but the thought has crossed my mind with more regularity than it did before the dawn of coronavirus, when I was a busy student like yourself. I ponder making my bed, not just as another chore to check off, but as a symbol of the kind of life that I want to lead in quarantine. 

Now, I am the one who tries to over-symbolize anything I encounter, but this specific attitude is not an original one. It comes from Admiral William H. McRaven’s graduation address, entitled “Make Your Bed,” for the class of 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin. His speech was considered so inspirational that he turned it into a book, but you can also find his work on Youtube (this link is a condensed version of the speech). As it so happens, this speech is part of the list of enrichment activities created by Coach Baker and Coach Kondo, which is included in the daily bulletin; however, I encountered the Admiral’s words differently. Months ago, my mom recommended that I read the book and/or the speech, and while I did not follow her suggestion immediately, I was struck by a part of the address which she paraphrased in her advertisement to me. Ever since, this remark hangs around me in the mornings, reminding me of what I probably should be doing: making my bed. This is the actual passage from Admiral McRaven’s speech:

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

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If there was ever a time for such advice, it comes when the means of conventional accomplishment are dimmed by crisis and shutdown. Without games to win or plays in which to act or concerts in which to dance, I find fulfillment in the completion of a modest task– peacefulness in its simplicity. Admiral McRaven says that “making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.” In this past month of economic and societal frenzy, I have paid closer attention to the birds chirping in the morning when I let my dog out, something which I had never appreciated speed walking to the car at 7:50, with the remains of breakfast in one hand and a deadweight backpack slung around my shoulder. For all our missed opportunities from the remainder of the school year, I trust that a thousand more have opened, be they much more humble than what we are familiar with. 

In 2020, a year of chaos thus far, we can make the most of quarantine through caring about everything little in a time when a towering situation spreads gloom throughout cities and towns. Recognizing the giant is easy, but a more rewarding task is recognizing the less visible parts of life which remain constant throughout any crisis: our ability to find hope and direction. Once the madness ends, I hope we can continue to make our beds in the morning and take time to be simple and deliberate in a swiftly spinning world.