It is a beautiful hour in the darkness before dawn. There is no one in the hallways, and for a brief time almost everyone is asleep, and those who aren't are silent. It is easy to believe that the Apocalypse has come and I am the only one who did not receive the memo, with the dorms silent around me and no light in the skies. When I am awake in these hours, I feel at peace. Peace that I only feel floating in water, with my eyes closed and my ears submerged, surrounded by nothing but my breathing and my heartbeat loud in my ears. Living in a landlocked state it is hard to find a body of water that has a pulse, like the ocean. Here I must make do with the roaring arteries, waterfalls of veins, instead of the beating heart of the waves. But in this hour when the moon has set and the sun has yet to rise, when the stars are the only meager light, I can feel the ocean beat in my blood, relaxing the tension of the future. Sitting on the roof, where I am not supposed to be, a slight breeze teases my hair into dance. I can feel it leap with a joy awoken by the wind, a joy that I wish I felt.
I watch the sun rise, it does so quickly, like a nature video on fast forward. Ruby turns to amethyst turns to sapphire turns to periwinkle. The dew catches the light and sets the grass on fire, newly emerald stalks blazing with light. It is beautiful, these hours when I am the only one awake, caught in stasis that I wish could last forever, building dreams made of gossamer and glass. An alarm clock shatters the silence and I am pulled back to reality. If only the night could last forever.
