I watched the first sunrise after leaving night work

Dear Delyara, I worked permanent night shifts for sixteen years. Sunrise usually meant exhaustion, traffic, and curtains closed before the day became too bright. After changing jobs for health reasons, my sleep slowly returned to normal. This morning, my wife woke me before dawn and drove us to the beach. I complained the entire way because old habits made early morning feel like punishment. Then the horizon changed. Orange first, then gold across the water. People were running, walking dogs, carrying coffee. I realized I had seen thousands of sunrises while finishing work and almost none while beginning a day I belonged to. We sat on the sand until the sun was fully up. My wife asked what I was thinking. I said nothing because the answer sounded embarrassingly large: I had spent sixteen years treating daylight as something to escape, and suddenly morning felt available.