Elias Pike | News Editor | epike2@mail.smcvt.edu
I often find myself awake at late hours. The stillness of the night has fallen upon campus, and I am drawn to the unnoticed and often overlooked beauty. The sounds of the night are much like the day, but the sounds of people are missing. While the cars rush pass along the road. the sounds of voices are scarce and few. The sky is full of glowing stars and the occasional plane taking a leap into the night’s dark embrace. Lights from windows cast silhouettes on the moonlit snow; as students walk by the windows their shadows dance like demons and tricksters in the night. The Moon and I walk together without saying a word and it feels calm, it feels restful.
In the winter, when the cold sets in and the air turns crisp and frigid, the sounds of the night travels unencumbered across the frozen fields and roads. My breath becomes a crystallized mist floating in the night air. As I move across the fields of snow, it seems as if my worries clear from my mind, and I become one with the night. In these moments I feel free, released from the crazy cycle that is my everyday life.
I enjoy interacting with the people around me, but there are those moments where I yearn for peace and quiet and I simply want to wipe my mind of any thoughts and take in the beauty that goes by unnoticed to many. During the day, I see many other people walking around going from place to place and it always feels busy, and stressful. It’s always about moving from one class to the next, then getting food, then going back to my dorm. Always moving, never really stopping to look at the world around me. In the hours of sun, I see many people scurrying around, but at night when the light of the lamp post casts down on the brick paths they are all but empty.
