This competition is amazing, let me see if I can flex my creative writing muscles and come up with an entry worth of this competition. When it comes to existential discussion, I can get lost in this kind of stuff for days.
Being "Awake" is being self-aware and being able to see things around you in a completely different way. You see through the masks that other people wear, the lies that people tell themselves to get through the day because the world is a round prison, with puzzles designed to keep you trapped within it.
You're not willing to get in line like everyone else and fall into the trap of routine, because routine is a magic trick designed to appease to the primitive segments of your brain.
To be truly awake is to break free of the invisible handcuffs placed upon you and society, to seek out change and make something happen. You make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen, you know change only happens as a result of action.
You see things for what they really are, you know not to accept everything at face value (the news, the lies your family/friends and loved ones tell you) and you can see the bigger picture around you when seemingly no one else can. Being awake is trusting your instincts because you know instincts are a protection mechanism perfected by thousands of years of evolution, trusting your instincts is a crucial step in waking up.
Being awake is being free of the institution designed to keep you in a semi-conscious state. Pharmaceutical companies profit immensely off of keeping people in a half-awake state, if people truly knew that pharmaceutical companies are profiting off disease and sickness when in most cases the drugs in question are designed to keep you alive for as long as possible (therefore spending more money), but not cure you, you would see the world differently.
Coincidentally pharmaceutical companies are some of the largest government lobbyists. It's in their interest for the government and any other interest that might threaten their reality manipulation to keep you only awake enough just to breathe and function. This is why money exists, to control us and force us into a system where you either conform or miss out on the opportunities that modern society affords.
Finally and most importantly: to be awake is to realise that belief systems (religious, philosophical, political, ideological) are distractions and a tool of control. It is not a coincidence that belief systems are usually the source of conflict, every war that has taken place can be traced back to a belief system. Fighting over religion, fighting over what political party should be in power...).