The middle of the night is the quietest time within a 24-hour period, yet there are so many small things that happen. One night, I was walking across my college campus around three o’clock in the morning coming home from a study session. As I took the first step outside, my body tensed up in response to the chill of the wind and I began my trek back home. My college is in the beautiful town of Bristol, Rhode Island and has wonderful surroundings, thanks to its home on the bay. During the day, it’s so beautiful. At night, it’s almost as if it is a whole different world.

I look around, being sure to maintain awareness of my surroundings as I clutch my keys between my fingers without even thinking about it. There is something about walking alone at night that instills feelings of uneasiness and uncertainty. This made me more surprised to see other people walking around at this ungodly hour. I passed one person that was wandering aimlessly for reasons I could not imagine. I saw a maintenance worker vacuuming and cleaning through the windows in a building. Though there seemed to be clear forms of life even so late at night, I could not have felt more alone in every step I took back home.

That’s what’s weird about nighttime. There is some indescribable feeling of loneliness that overcomes the world. I could not hear a single sound other than the trees rustling in the wind. I looked around at the lights lining the other side of the water, thinking about what kinds of things could be going on over there. In the midst of the night, there could be people talking, conjuring life changing ideas, or trying to change the world and you would have no idea because when the darkness of the night is with you, there doesn’t seem to be anything else. I felt as if I could scream and the silence that took precedence over the world would be louder than what my small -- though maybe mighty -- voice could project. I then heard a quick movement happen in the tree next to me and it completely broke my attention as my heart jumped. It was simply a small animal and it did not take much more than that for my focus to be taken and the energy in my steps to accelerate. I was almost home and my longing for the safety of my dorm grew. When I finally made it back, my muscles relaxed and I could being to feel the coldness and tenseness leave me. As I tucked myself into bed, I realized how something as simple as walking alone at night can make me think about things I normally wouldn’t.

Sometimes I forget that there is a world out there just passed the obscurity in the three o’clock hour. There is life going on and things that are happening all of the time. I question how the night holds that sort of control over me in making me forget that. But, alas, the night agrees with the darkness, and the darkness agrees with my insight on loneliness, and we all decide that the silence of the night is a dissonant thing as it heightens senses and raises uncertainty.

Even when you’re concluding your day tucking yourself in for a good night’s sleep, life is still going on. Don’t forget to take a step back to appreciate small things and to let yourself be relaxed enough to notice them.